Origin  of  Modern  Calculating 
Machines 


A  chronicle  oi  the  evolution  of  the 

principles  that  form  the  generic 

make-up  of  the  Modern 

Calculating  Machine 


BY 

J.  A.  V.  TURCK 

Member  ot  The  Western  Society  of  Engineers 


i 


CHICAGO.  1921 
Published  under  the  auspices  of 

The  Western  Society  of  Engineers 


* 


f 


* 


Copyright,  1921,  by 
J.  A.  V.  Turck 


438802 


Foreword 

THERE  is  nothing  romantic  in  figures,  and 
the  average  man  takes  little  interest  in  any 
subject  pertaining  to  them.  As  a  result  of 
this  antipathy,  there  is  plenty  of  historic  evidence 
of  man's  endeavor  to  minimize  the  hated  drudgery 
of  calculation. 

While  history  shows  that,  from  prehistoric  man 
down  to  the  present  age,  human  ingenuity  has 
turned  to  mechanical  means  to  overcome  the  brain 
fatigue  of  arithmetical  figuring,  it  is  within  quite 
recent  years  that  he  has  really  succeeded  in  devis- 
ing means  more  rapid  than  the  human  brain. 

Of  this  modern  product  little  has  been  written, 
except  in  disconnected  articles  that  have  in  no  case 
offered  a  complete  understanding  as  to  who  were 
the  great  benefactors  of  mankind  that  gave  to  the 
world  the  first  concrete  production  of  these  mod- 
ern principles  of  mechanical  calculation. 

The  writer,  believing  that  there  are  many  who 
would  be  interested  to  know  the  true  facts  rela- 
tive to  this  subject,  has  given  to  the  public,  in  that 
which  follows,  a  chronicle  of  the  evolution  of  the 
principles  disclosed  in  these  modern  machines, 
along  with  the  proofs  that  form  the  foundation 
for  the  story  in  a  way  that  all  may  understand. 

Although  the  subject  has  been  handled  in  a  way 

that  makes  it  unnecessary  for  the  reader  to  be 

carried  through  a  jangle  of  tiresome  mechanical 

construction,  the  writer  believes  that  there  are 

1 


.'IOkkji,'^  of.' Modern  Calculating  Machines 


many  interested  in  the  detail  workings  of  these 
machines,  and  has  for  that  reason  provided  an 
interesting  and  simple  description  of  the  working 
of  each  illustrated  machine,  which  may  be  read  by 
those  who  wish,  or  skipped  over,  if  the  reader 
desires,  without  the  danger  of  losing  knowledge 
of  the  relation  of  each  of  these  machines  to  the 
Art. 


Chapters 


PAGE 

Foreword 1 

Types  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Machines 5 

The  Early  Key-Driven  Art 17 

The  Key-Driven  Calculator 50 

Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art 79 

First  Practical  Recorders Ill 

Introduction  of  the  Modern  Accounting  Machine 144 

The  High-Speed  Calculator 149 

The  Improved  Recorder 163 

The  Bookkeeping  and  Billing  Machine 174 

A  Closing  Word 190 


Illustrations 

PAGE 
Frontispiece,  "Stone  Age  Calculating" 

One  of  the  Pascal  Machines 10 

Photo  of  Blaise  Pascal 11 

Parmelee  Patent  Drawings 16 

Hill  Patent  Drawings 23 

Chapin  Patent  Drawings 28 

From  the  Stark  Patent  Drawings 32 

From  the  Robjohn  Patent  Drawings 36 

From  Drawings  of  Bouchet  Patent  314,561 40 

Drawings  of  Spalding  Patent  No.  293,809 46 

"Macaroni  Box"  Model 53 

Photo  of  Dorr  E.  Felt 55 

The  First  "Q)mptometer" 57 

From  Drawings  of  Felt  Patent  No.  371,496 58 

Bill  for  First  Manufacturing  Tools  of  the  Comptometer ....  68 

Early  Comptometer 69 

Letter  from  Geo.  W.  Martin 71 

Testimonial 72 

Testimonial 73 

Letters  from  Elliott  and  Rosecrans 74 

From  Drawings  of  Barbour  Patent  No.  133,188 78 

From  Drawings  of  Baldwin  Patent  No.  159,244 83 

Baldwin  Machine 83 

From  Drawings  of  Pottin  Patent  No.  312,014 88 

From  Drawings  of  Burroughs  Patent  No.  388,118 94 

Photo  of  Wm.  S.  Burroughs 95 

Drawings  of  Ludlum  Patent  No.  384,373 104 

From  Drawings  of  Felt  Patent  No.  405,024 112 

Testimonial 117 

Felt  Recording  and  Listing  Machine 118 

From  Drawings  of  Felt  Patent  No.  465,255 121 

Felt  Tabulator 126 

One  of  the  Early  "Comptographs" 130 

Photo  of  Gottfried  Wilhelm  Leibnitz 132 

Leibnitz  Calculator 133 

From  Drawings  of  Burroughs'  Patents  Nos.  504,963  and 

505,078 136 

Burroughs'  Recorder 137 

From  the  February  1908  Issue  of  Office  Appliances  Magazine  142 

The  High-Speed  Calculator 148 

Two  Pages  from  Wales  Adding  Machine  Co.  Booklet 165 

Moon-Hopkins  Billing  and  Bookkeeping  Machine 176 

Napier's  Bones 179 

From  Drawings  of  Barbour  Patent  No.  130,404 180 

Photo  of  John  Napier 181 

From  Drawings  of  Bollee  Patent  No.  556,720 186 

4 


The  Modem  Accountinjy  Machine 

THE  tenn  "adding  machine"  or  "calculating 
machine"  to  most  of  us  represents  the  ma- 
chine we  have  seen  in  the  bank.  The  average 
person  is  not  familiar  with  the  different  types  of 
accounting  machines,  to  say  nothing  of  the  many 
uses  to  which  they  are  put;  but  he  has  a  vague 
idea  that  to  hold  any  value  they  should  produce  a 
printed  record,  he  doesn't  know  why  and  he  hasn't 
stopped  to  reason  why;  but  those  he  has  seen  in 
the  bank  do  print,  and  any  machine  the  bank  uses, 
to  his  mind,  must  be  all  right. 

There  are,  of  course,  people  who  do  know  the 
different  types  of  accounting  machines,  and  are 
familiar  with  their  special  uses,  but  there  are  very 
few  who  are  familiar  with  the  true  history  of  the 
modern  accounting  machine. 

Articles  written  by  those  not  familiar  with  the 
true  facts  relative  to  the  art  of  accounting  ma- 
chines have  wrought  confusion.  Their  errors  have  edge  lacking 
been  copied  and  new  errors  added,  thus  increasing 
the  confusion.  Again,  claims  made  in  trade  adver- 
tisements and  booklets  are  misleading,  with  the 
result  that  the  truth  is  but  little  known. 

These  facts,  and  the  psychological  effect  of  see- 
ing a  certain  type  of  machine  in  the  bank  would 
lead  the  average  man  to  believe  that  the  recording- 
adding  machine  was  the  only  practical  machine; 


Ceneral  knowl- 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


and  also  (as  someone  stated  in  the  December,  1915, 
issue  of  the  Geographic  Magazine)  that  Burroughs 
was  the  inventor  of  the  recording-adding  machine. 

Although  the  history  of  accounting  machines 
dates  way  back  into  the  tenth  century,  the  modern 
accounting  machines  are  of  quite  recent  origin, 
and  are  especially  distinguished  by  the  presence 
of  depressable  keys.  The  keys  in  these  machines 
act  as  a  means  of  gauging  the  actuation  which 
determines  the  value  in  calculation,  whether  the 
machine  is  key-driven  or  key-set  with  a  crank  or 
motor  drive. 

These  modern  machines,  which  come  within  the 
classification  of  key-driven  and  key-set,  have  their 
respective  special  uses. 
Key-driven  The  key-driven  machine,  which  was  the  first 

'f /fc'*'"^'.'^'^  produced  of  these  two  types  of  modern  machines, 
machinrs  does  iiot  print,  and  is  used  for  all  forms  of  calcu- 
lation, but  is  generally  behind  the  scenes  in  the 
accounting  rooms  of  all  lines  of  business,  and  for 
that  reason  is  not  so  well  known  as  the  key -set 
crank-operated  or  motor-driven  machine,  which 
is  designed  to  print  and  is  always  in  full  view  in 
the  bank  where  it  is  used  to  print  your  statement 
of  account  from  the  vouchers  you  have  issued. 

When  we  stop  to  analyze  the  qualities  of  these 
two  types  of  machines,  we  find  that  each  has  its 
place  and  that  neither  may  truly  serve  to  displace 
the  other.  The  organization  of  each  is  designed 
with  reference  to  the  special  work  it  was  intended 
to  do. 

The  calculating  machine,  having  only  to  perform 
the  work  of  revolving  the  numeral  wheels  in 
calculating  addition,  subtraction,  multiplication 
and  division  in  its  many  forms  and  combinations, 


Types  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Machines 


may  be  key-driven  (on  account  of  the  slight 
mechanical  resistance  met  with  in  action),  and 
thus,  as  a  one-motion  machine,  requiring  only  the 
depression  of  the  keys,  may  also  be  much  more 
rapid  of  manipulation  than  the  two-motion  record- 
ing-adding machine  which,  after  depressing  the 
keys  for  each  item,  requires  the  secondary  opera- 
tion of  pulling  a  crank  forward  or  operating  a 
push  bar  that  connects  the  motor. 

The  recording-adding  machine  being  designed  to 
print  the  items  and  answers  of  addition,  requires 
power  for  the  printing  which  cannot  be  supplied 
by  key  depression.  Thus  an  extra  means  for  sup- 
plying that  power  must  be  provided  in  the  form  of 
a  crank  lever,  or  in  the  latest  machines  by  a  motor. 
The  keys  in  such  machines  serve  only  as  digital 
control  to  gauge  the  setting  of  mechanism  which 
prints  the  items  and  adds  them  together.  The 
secondary  motion  operates  the  mechanism  to  print 
and  add  and  finally  to  clear  the  machine  for  the 
setting  up  of  the  next  item.  The  recording  of 
added  columns  of  figures  requires  that  the  answer 
must  always  be  printed.  This  demands  special 
operation  of  devices  provided  for  that  purpose, 
which  also  adds  to  the  time  spent  in  the  operation 
of  such  machines  as  compared  with  the  key-driven 
calculator. 

To  state  which  of  these  two  types  of  machines 
is  the  more  useful  would  cause  a  shower  of  com- 
ment, and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  object  of 
this  article.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  where  a  printed 
record  of  items  added  together  with  their  answer 
is  required  for  filing  purposes,  or  to  bring  together 
loose  items  like  those  in  your  bank  statement,  the 
recording-adding  machine  serves;  but  when  rapid 


Recording,  the 
primary  feature 
of  adding  ma- 
chines that  print 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


calculation  in  addition,  multiplication,  subtraction 
or  division,  or  when  combinations  of  these  forms 
of  calculation  are  required,  the  key-driven  calcu- 
lator is  the  practical  machine  for  such  work. 

Although  the  key-driven  calculator  is  generally 
not  so  well  known,  it  is,  as  stated,  the  oldest  of  the 
modern  accounting  machines,  and  its  usefulness 
places  it  in  the  accounting  room,  where  it  is  oft- 
times  found  employed  by  the  hundreds  in  figuring 
up  the  day's  work  of  accounting. 
Validity  and  The  purpose  of  this  book  is  based  wholly  upon 
priority  of  showing  the  validity  and  priority  of  invention 
which  constitute  true  contributions  to  the  Art  of 
these  two  types  of  modern  accounting  machines; 
to  place  the  facts  for  once  and  all  time  before  the 
public  in  such  a  way  that  they  may  judge  for 
themselves  to  whom  the  honor  is  due  and  thus 
settle  the  controversy  that  exists. 

The  quibbling  of  court  contests  over  the  termin- 
ology of  claims  of  patents  owned  by  the  various 
inventors  have  been  set  aside  and  only  the  true 
contributions  to  the  Art  which  pertain  to  the 
fundamental  principles  that  have  made  the  modern 
machines  possible,  are  here  dealt  with. 

The  dates  of  patents  on  inoperative  or  imprac- 
tical machines  have  from  time  to  time  been  held 
up  to  the  public  as  instances  of  priority  of  inven- 
tion; but  when  the  validity  of  these  patents,  as 
furnishing  any  real  contributions  to  the  Art,  is 
questioned,  they  are  not  found  to  hold  the  theme 
or  principle  that  made  the  modern  machines  pos- 
sible, and  as  inventions,  fade  into  obscurity. 

The  Art  of  either  the  calculating  machine  or  the 
adding-recording  machine  is  not  new;  it  is,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  very  old.  As  before  stated,  the  Art 


Types  of  Ajtcient  and  Modern  Machines 


11 


of  "accounting  machine"  dates  back  to  the  tenth 
century,  but  the  first  authentic  evidence  of  a  work- 
ing machine  is  extant  in  models  made  by  Pascal 
in  1642  (see  illustration). 


The  Pascal  ]\Iachine 

Referring  to  the  illustration,  Fig.  1,  of  Pascal's 
machine  on  the  opposite  page,  it  will  be  noted 
that  there  are  a  series  of  square  openings  in  the 
top  of  the  casing ;  under  these  openings  are  drums, 
each  numbered  on  its  cylindrical  surface. 

As  the  machine  illustrated  was  made  to  figure 
English  currency,  the  two  right-hand  wheels  are 
numbered  for  pence  and  shillings,  while  the  six 
wheels  to  the  left  are  numbered  from  1  to  9  and  0 
for  pounds. 

The  pounds  register-drums,  or  numeral  wheels, 
are  each  operated  by  a  train  of  gearing  connecting 
them  with  a  ten-armed  turnstile  wheel  which  form 
the  hub  and  spokes  of  what  appears  to  be  a  series 
of  wheels  on  the  top  of  the  casing.  While  the 
spokes  and  hub  are  movable,  the  rims  of  these 
wheels  are  stationary  and  are  numbered  from  1  to 
9  and  0. 

The  geared  relation  between  the  turnstile  wheels 
and  the  numeral  wheels  is  such  that  rotating  a 
turnstile  will  give  like  rotation  to  its  numeral 
wheel. 

Assuming  that  the  numeral  wheel  of  any  one  of 
the  difi'erent  orders  registered  0  through  its  sight 
opening  and  the  turnstile  of  the  same  order  was 
moved  one  spoke  of  a  rotation,  it  would  move  the 
wheel  so  that  the  0  would  disappear  and  the  figure 
1  would  appear ;  now  if  we  should  move  the  same 
turnstile  three  more  spokes  the  numeral  wheel 


Blaise  Pascal 


Description 
uf  Pascal's 
invention 


Paifcal  machine 


12  Origik  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


would  move  likewise  three  spaces  and  the  4  would 
appear. 

A  stop  in  the  form  of  a  finger  reaching  over  the 
spokes  is  provided  to  stop  the  turnstile  at  the  right 
point  so  that  the  figures  on  the  numeral  wheels 
may  register  properly  with  the  sight  openings  in 
the  casing. 

Conslruclional  '^^^  figures  on  the  wheel  rims  fast  to  the  casing 
Jeatures  of  the  are  arranged  anti-clockwise  to  register  with  the 
space  between  the  spokes,  the  0  registering 
with  the  first  space,  the  1  with  the  second  space 
and  so  on  around  the  wheel.  Thus  by  use  of  the 
finger  or  a  stylo  inserted  in  a  space  opposite  the 
number  to  be  added,  the  operator  may  move  the 
spoked  wheel  or  turnstile  clockwise  until  stopped 
by  the  stop  finger.  By  repeated  selection  and 
operation  for  each  figure  to  be  added,  the  wheels 
will  be  revolved  through  their  cycles  of  rotation 
caused  by  the  accumulation. 

As  the  numeral  wheels  complete  each  rotation 
the  0  will  appear,  so  that  a  registration  of  the  tens 
must  be  made.  Pascal  provided  for  the  accumula- 
tion of  the  tens  by  automatically  turning  the 
wheel  of  next  higher  order  one  point  through  the 
action  of  the  lower  wheel. 

The  novel  means  employed  for  this  transfer  of 
the  tens  consisted  of  a  one-step  ratchet  device 
operated  by  a  pin  in  the  train  of  gearing  connected 
with  the  lower  numeral  wheel,  which,  as  the  lower 
wheel  passed  from  9  to  0,  forced  the  lever  to  which 
the  ratchet  pawl  was  attached  in  a  direction  to 
cause  the  gearing  of  the  higher  numeral  wheel  to 
be  ratcheted  forward  far  enough  to  add  one  to  the 
higher  numeral  wheel. 


Types  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Machines 


13 


The  direct  actuation  of  a  numbered  wheel  through 
its  various  degrees  of  rotation  and  the  secondary 
feature  of  effecting  a  one-step  movement  to  the 
numbered  wheel  of  higher  order  (which  seems  to 
have  been  originated  by  Pascal)  is  the  founda- 
tion on  which  nearly  all  the  calculating  machines 
have  since  been  constructed  to  calculate  the  com- 
binations of  the  Arabian  numerals  represented  in 
Addition,  Multiplication,  Subtraction  and  Division. 

In  Fig.  2  of  the  illustration  of  Pascal's  machine, 
the  machine  has  been  reversed,  and  the  bottom  of 
the  casing,  which  is  hinged,  throw^n  back,  show- 
ing the  numeral  wheels  and  gearing  of  the  differ- 
ent orders  and  the  transfer  levers  for  the  carry  of 
the  tens. 

The  Art  of  the  modern  machines  is  far  removed 
from  the  older  Art  by  its  greatly  increased 
capacity  for  rapid  calculation  which  is  found 
emanating  from  the  provision  of  keys  as  the  means 
of  manipulation. 

To  the  unsophisticated,  such  a  simple  thing  as 
applying  keys  to  the  ancient  type  of  calculating 
machines  that  have  been  made  and  used  for  cen- 
turies, would  seem  but  a  simple  mechanical  appli- 
cation that  the  ordinary  mechanic  could  accom- 
plish. But  it  was  too  great  a  problem  for  the  many- 
renowned  inventors  of  the  older  Art  to  solve. 

Even  though  the  use  of  depressable  keys  was  com- 
mon to  many  machines,  especially  the  piano,  they 
knew  that  the  organized  make-up  of  their  machines 
could  scarcely  stand,  without  error,  the  slow  action 
received  from  the  crank  motion  or  other  means 
employed  as  manipulating  devices.  To  place  it 
within  the  power  of  an  operator  to  operate  their 
machines  at  such  a  speed  as  would  obtain  in  the 
sudden  striking  of  a  key  would  result  in  chaos. 


IiicrciUied  cainu 
ily  of  nuHiern 
•  ttlculalor 


14  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Patent  office  a         There  is  no  room  for  doubt  that  some  of  these 
repository  qi      garlv  inventors  had  the  wish  or  desire  to  produce 

ineffectual  "^  ,  •  ,  -,  .1 

efforts  such  a  key-driven  machine  and  may  have  attempted 
to  produce  one.  But  as  they  lacked  the  advantage 
of  an  institution  like  the  Patent  Office  in  which 
they  could  leave  a  record  of  their  inoperative  in- 
ventions, and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  they  were 
dependent  on  producing  an  operating  machine  for 
credit,  there  is  no  authentic  proof  that  they  made 
attempts  in  this  line. 


No.  7,074. 


D.  D.  PARMELEE. 
Calculator. 


Patented  Feb.  5,  1850. 


Piirmelee  Patent  Drawings 


The  Early  Key-Driven  Art 

MLE  COLONEL  D'OCAGNE,  Ingenieur  des 
Fonts  et  Chaussees,  Professeur  a  I'Ecole 
•  des  Fonts  et  Chaussees,  Repetiteur  a 
TEcole  Folytechnique,  in  his  "Le  Calcul  simplifie," 
a  historical  review  of  calculating  devices  and  ma- 
chines, refers  to  the  key-driven  machine  as  having 
first  made  its  appearance  in  the  Schilt  machine  of 
1851,  but  that  the  Art  reached  its  truly  practi- 
cal fonn  in  America.  In  the  latter  part  of  his 
statement  the  professor  is  correct,  but  as  to  the 
first  appearance  of  the  key-driven  machine  the 
U.  S.  Fatent  Office  records  show  that  a  patent  was 
issued  to  D.  D.  Parmelee  in  1850  for  a  key-driven 
adding  machine  (see  illustration). 

The  Parmelee  Machine 

By  referring  to  the  illustration  of  the  Parmelee  '  ^^irst  attempt  h 

,  -.1  'i-'"'  aepressaolr 

machine  reproduced  from  the  drawings  of  the    keys  for  adding 

patent,  the  reader  will  notice  that  the  patentee 

deviated  from  the  established  principle  of  using 

numeral  wheels.    In  place  of  numeral  wheels  a 

long  ratchet-toothed  bar  has  been  supplied,  the 

flat  faces  of  which  are  numbered  progressively 

from  the  top  to  the  bottom. 

As  shown  in  Fig.  2  of  these  drawings,  a  spring- 
pressed  ratchet  pawl  marked  k,  engages  the  teeth 
of  the  ratchet  or  numeral  bar.  The  pawl  k,  is  piv- 
oted to  a  lever-constructed  device  marked  E,  the 
plan  of  which  is  shown  in  Fig.  3.  This  lever 
17 


was  made  in 
America 


18 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Description 
of  Parmelee 

machine 


Foreign  diyil 
adders 


device  is  pivoted  and  operated  by  the  keys  which 
are  provided  with  arms  d,  so  arranged  that  when 
any  one  of  the  keys  is  depressed  the  arm  contacts 
with  and  operates  the  lever  device  and  its  pawl  k 
to  ratchet  the  numeral  bar  upwards. 

Another  spring-pressed  ratchet  pawl  marked  m 
(see  Fig.  2)  is  mounted  on  the  bottom  of  the  cas- 
ing and  serves  to  hold  the  numeral  bar  from  re- 
turning after  a  key-depression. 

It  will  be  noted  from  Fig.  1  that  the  keys  extend 
through  the  top  of  the  casing  in  progressively 
varying  heights.  This  variation  is  such  as  to 
allow  the  No.  1  key  to  ratchet  up  one  tooth  of 
the  numeral  bar,  the  No.  2  key  two  teeth,  etc.,  pro- 
gressively. By  this  method  a  limited  column  of 
digits  could  be  added  up  by  depressing  the  keys 
corresponding  to  the  digits  and  the  answer  could 
be  read  from  the  lowest  tooth  of  the  numeral  bar 
that  protruded  through  the  top  of  the  casing. 

It  is  evident  that  if  the  Parmelee  machine  was 
ever  used  to  add  with,  the  operator  would  have  to 
use  a  pussyfoot  key-stroke  or  the  numeral  bar 
would  over-shoot  and  give  an  erroneous  answer, 
as  no  provision  was  made  to  overcome  the  momen- 
tum that  could  be  given  the  numeral  bar  in  an 
adding  action. 

The  foreign  machines  of  the  key-driven  type 
were  made  by  V.  Schilt,  1851 ;  F.  Arzberger,  1866 ; 
Stetner,  1882;  Bagge,  1882;  d'Azevedo,  1884; 
Petetin,  1885;  Maq  Meyer,  1886.  These  foreign 
machines,  like  that  of  Parmelee,  according  to 
M.  le  Colonel  d'Ocagne,  were  limited  to  the  capacity 
of  adding  a  single  column  of  digits  at  a  time.  ITiat 
is,  either  a  column  of  units  or  tens  or  hundreds, 
etc.,  at  a  time.  Such  machines,  of  course,  required 


The  Early  Key-Driven  Art  19 


the  adding  first  of  all  the  units,  and  a  note  made  of      ^.    .... 
the  total ;  then  the  machine  must  be  cleared  and      adders  lack 
the  tens  figure  of  the  total,  and  hundreds,  if  there      '^'pacity 
be  one,  must  then  be  added  or  carried  over  to  the 
tens  column  the  same  as  adding  single  columns 
mentally. 

On  account  of  these  machines  having  only  a 
capacity  for  adding  one  order  or  column  of  digits, 
the  unit  value  9  was  the  greatest  item  that  could 
be  added  at  a  time.  Thus,  if  the  overflow  in  adding 
the  units  column  or  any  other  column  amounted  to 
more  than  one  place,  it  required  a  multiple  of  key- 
depressions  to  put  it  on  the  register.  For  example, 
suppose  the  sum  of  adding  the  units  columns 
should  be  982,  it  would  require  the  depression  of 
the  9-key  ten  times  and  then  the  8-key  to  be 
struck,  to  put  the  98  on  the  machine.  This  order 
of  manipulation  had  to  be  repeated  for  each  denom- 
inational column  of  figures. 

Another  method  that  could  be  used  in  the  man- 
ipulation of  these  single-order  or  digit-adding 
machines  was  to  set  down  the  sum  of  each  order 
as  added  with  its  units  figure  arranged  relative  to 
the  order  it  represents  the  sum  of,  and  then  men- 
tally add  such  sums  (see  example  below)  the  same 
as  you  would  set  down  the  sums  in  multiplication 
and  add  them  together. 

Example  of  method  that  may  be  used  with  single  column 
adder. 

982- 

563 

384 

125 


170012 


20  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Such  machines,  of  course,  never  became  popu- 
lar because  of  their  hmited  capacity,  which  re- 
quired manj^  extra  movements  and  caused  mental 
strain  without  offering  an  increase  in  speed  of  cal- 
culation as  compared  with  expert  mental  calcula- 
tion. There  were  a  number  of  patents  issued  in  the 
United  States  on  machines  of  this  class  which  may 
well  be  named  single  digit-adders. 
Some  early  U.S.  The  machines  of  this  type  which  were  patented 

^°  ^^d\git  adding  ^^  the  United  States,  preceding  the  first  practical 
machines  multiple  order  modern  machine,  were  patented  by 
D.  D.  Parmelee,  1850;  W.  Robjohn,  1872;  D. 
Carroll,  1876;  Borland  &  Hoffman,  1878;  M. 
Bouchet,  1883;  A.  Stettner,  1883;  Spalding,  1884; 
L.  M.  Swem,  1885  and  1886 ;  P.  T.  Lindholm,  1886 ; 
and  B.  F.  Smith,  1887.  All  of  these  machines 
varied  in  construction  but  not  in  principle.  Some 
were  really  operative  and  others  inoperative,  but 
all  lacked  what  may  be  termed  useful  capacity. 

To  those  not  familiar  with  the  technical  fea- 
tures of  the  key-driven  calculating  machine  Art, 
it  would  seem  that  if  a  machine  could  be  made  to 
add  one  column  of  digits,  it  would  require  no 
great  invention  or  ingenuity  to  arrange  such 
mechanisms  in  a  plurality  of  orders.  But  the  im- 
possibility of  effecting  such  a  combination  with- 
out exercising  a  high  degree  of  invention  will 
become  evident  as  the  reader  becomes  familiar 
with  the  requirements,  which  are  best  illustrated 
through  the  errors  made  by  those  who  tried  to 
produce  such  a  machine. 

As  stated,  the  first  authentic  knowledge  we  have 
of  an  actual  machine  for  adding  is  extant  in  models 


The  Early  Key-Driven  Art 


21 


made  by  Pascal  in  1642,  which  were  all  multiple- 
order  machines,  and  the  same  in  general  as  that 
shown  in  the  illustration,  page  10. 

History  shows  that  Europe  and  other  foreign 
countries  have  been  using  calculating  machines 
for  centuries.  Like  that  of  Pascal's,  they  were  all 
multiple-order  machines,  and,  although  not  key- 
driven,  they  were  capable  of  adding  a  number  of 
columns  or  items  of  six  to  eight  places  at  once  with- 
out the  extra  manipulation  described  as  necessary 
with  single-order  digit  adding  machines.  A  num- 
ber of  such  machines  were  made  in  the  United 
States  prior  to  the  first  practical  multiple-order 
key-driven  calculator. 

This  fact  and  the  fact  that  the  only  operative 
key-driven  machines  made  prior  to  1887  were 
single-digit  adders  are  significant  proof  that  the 
backward  step  from  such  multiple-order  machines 
to  a  single-order  key-driven  machine  was  from 
the  lack  of  some  unknown  mechanical  functions 
that  would  make  a  multiple-order  key-driven  cal- 
culator possible.  There  was  a  reason,  and  a  good 
one,  that  kept  the  inventors  of  these  single-order 
key-driven  machines  from  turning  their  invention 
into  a  multiple-order  key-driven  machine. 

It  is  folly  to  think  that  all  these  inventors  never 
had  the  thought  or  wish  to  produce  such  a  machine. 
It  is  more  reasonable  to  believe  there  was  not 
one  of  them  who  did  not  have  the  wish  and  who 
did  not  give  deep  thought  to  the  subject.  There  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  some  of  them  tried  it, 
but  there  is  no  doubt  that  if  they  did  it  was  a 
failure,  or  there  would  be  evidence  of  it  in  some 
form. 


Calculating  ma- 
chines in  use 
abroad  fur 
centuries 


First  key-driven 
machines  no 
improvement 
to  the  Art 


22  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


The  Hill  Machine 

The  U.  S.  Patent  Office  records  show  that  one 
ambitious  inventor,  Thomas  Hill,  in  1857  secured 
a  patent  on  a  multiple-order  key-driven  calculating 
machine  (see  illustration),  which  he  claimed  as  a 
new  and  useful  invention.  The  Hill  patent,  how- 
ever, was  the  only  one  of  that  class  issued,  until 
the  first  really  operative  modem  machine  was  made 
thirty  years  later,  and  affords  a  fine  example  by 
which  the  features  that  were  lacking  in  the  make- 
up of  a  really  operative  machine  of  this  type  may 
be  brought  out. 
Descriptionofihr  The  illustrations  of  the  Hill  machine  on  the 
Hillmachw  opposite  page,  reproduced  from  the  drawings  of 
the  patent,  show  two  numeral  wheels,  each  having 
seven  sets  each  of  large  and  small  figures  running 
from  1  to  9  and  the  cipher  marked  on  their  pe- 
riphery. The  large  sets  of  figures  are  arranged  for 
addition  or  positive  calculation,  and  the  small 
figures  are  arranged  the  reverse  for  subtraction  or 
negative  calculation.  The  wheels  are  provided  with 
means  for  the  carry  of  the  tens,  very  similar  to 
that  found  in  the  Pascal  machine.  Each  of  the  two 
wheels  shown  are  provided  with  ratchet  teeth 
which  correspond  in  number  with  the  number  of 
figures  on  the  wheel. 

Spring-pressed,  hook-shaped  ratchet  pawls 
marked  b,  are  arranged  to  be  in  constant  engage- 
ment with  the  numeral  wheels.  These  pawls  are 
each  pivotally  mounted  in  the  end  of  the  levers 
marked  E,  which  are  pivoted  at  the  front  end  of 
the  casing. 

The  levers  E,  are  held  in  normal  or  upward  posi- 
tion by  springs  f,  at  the  front  of  the  machine. 


No.  18,692. 


T.  HILL. 

ARITHMOMETER. 

Patented  Nov.  24.  1857. 


Hill  Patent  Drawint 


24  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Above  each  of  these  levers  E,  are  a  series  of  keys 
which  protrude  through  the  casing  with  their 
lower  ends  resting  on  the  levers.  There  are  but  six 
keys  shown  in  the  drawing,  but  the  specification 
claims  that  a  complete  set  of  nine  keys  may  be 
supplied  for  each  lever. 

The  arrangement  and  spacing  of  the  keys  are 
such  that  the  greater  the  value  of  the  key  the 
nearer  it  is  to  the  fulcrum  or  pivot  of  the  lever  E. 
The  length  of  the  key  stem  under  the  head  or  but- 
ton of  each  key  is  gauged  to  allow  depression  of 
the  key,  the  lever  E  and  pawl  b,  far  enough  to 
cause  the  numeral  wheel  to  rotate  as  many  numeral 
places  as  the  value  marking  on  the  key. 

A  back-stop  pawl  for  the  numeral  wheels,  marked 
p,  is  mounted  on  a  cross-rod  at  the  top  of  the 
machine.  But  one  of  these  pawls  are  shown,  the 
shaft  and  the  pawl  for  the  higher  wheel  being 
broken  away  to  show  the  device  for  transferring 
the  tens  to  the  higher  wheel. 

The  transfer  device  for  the  carry  of  the  tens  is 
a  lever  arrangement  constructed  from  a  tube  F, 
mounted  on  the  cross-rod  m,  with  arms  G  and  H. 
Pivoted  to  the  arm  G,  is  a  ratchet  pawl  i,  and 
attached  to  the  pawl  is  a  spring  that  serves  to 
hold  the  pawl  in  engagement  with  the  ratchet  of 
the  higher-order  numeral  wheel,  and  at  the  same 
time,  through  its  attachment  with  the  pawl,  holds 
the  lever  arms  G  and  H  retracted  as  shown  in  the 
drawing. 

As  the  lower-order  numeral  wheel  passes  any 
one  of  its  points  from  9  to  0,  one  of  the  teeth  or 
cam  lugs  n,  on  the  wheel  will  move  the  arm  H,  of 
the  transfer  lever  forward,  causing  the  pawl  i,  to 
move  the  higher-order  wheel  one  step  to  register 
the  accumulation  of  the  tens. 


The  Early  Key-Driven  Art 


25 


The  functions  of  the  Hill  mechanism  would, 
perhaps,  be  practical  if  it  were  not  for  the  physical 
law  that  "bodies  set  in  motion  tend  to  remain  in 
motion," 

Considerable  unearned  publicity  has  been  given 
the  Hill  invention  on  account  of  the  patent  office 
model  having  been  placed  on  exhibit  in  the  National 
Museum  at  Washington.  Judging  from  the  out- 
ward appearance  of  this  model,  the  aiTangement 
of  the  keys  in  columns  would  seem  to  impart  the 
impression  that  here  was  the  foundation  of  the 
modern  key-driven  machine.  The  columnar  prin- 
ciple used  in  the  arrangement  of  the  keys,  how- 
ever, is  the  only  similarity. 

The  Hill  invention,  moreover,  was  lacking  in  the 
essential  feature  necessary  to  the  make-up  of  such 
a  machine,  a  lack  that  for  thirty  years  held  the 
ancient  Art  against  the  inroads  of  the  modern  Art 
that  finally  displaced  it.  The  feature  lacking  was 
a  means  for  controlling  the  action  of  the  mechan- 
ism under  the  tremendously  increased  speed  pro- 
duced by  the  use  of  depressable  keys  as  an  actuat- 
ing means. 

Hill  made  no  provision  for  overcoming  the 
lightning-speed  momentum  that  could  be  given  the 
numeral  wheels  in  his  machine  through  manipu- 
lation of  the  keys,  either  from  direct  key-action 
or  indirectly  through  the  carry  of  the  tens.  Imagine 
the  sudden  whirl  his  numeral  wheel  would  receive 
on  a  quick  depression  of  a  key  and  then  consider 
that  he  provided  no  means  for  stopping  these 
wheels;  it  is  obvious  that  a  correct  result  could 
not  be  obtained  by  the  use  of  such  mechanism. 
Some  idea  of  what  would  take  place  in  the  Hill 
machine  under  manipulation  by  an  operator  may 


Hill  machine  at 

i\'alional 

Museum 


Inoperativeness 
of  Hilt  machine 


26  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


be  conceived  from  the  speed  attained  in  the  oper- 
ation of  the  keys  of  the  up-to-date  modern  key- 
driven  machine. 
High  speed  uj  Operators  on  key-driven  machines  oftentimes 

keydrm  attain  a  speed  of  550'  key  strokes  a  minute  in 
multiplication.  Let  us  presume  that  any  one  of 
these  strokes  may  be  a  depression  of  a  nine  key. 
The  depression  and  return,  of  course,  represents 
a  full  stroke,  but  only  half  of  the  stroke  would 
represent  the  time  in  which  the  wheel  acts.  Thus 
the  numeral  wheel  would  be  turned  nine  of  its  ten 
points  of  rotation  in  an  eleven  hundredth  (1/1100) 
of  a  minute.  That  means  only  one-ninth  of  the 
time  given  to  half  of  the  key  stroke,  or  a  ninety- 
nine  hundredth  (1/9900)  of  a  minute;  a  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-fifth  (1/165)  part  of  a  second  for 
a  carry  to  be  effected. 
Camera  slow  If  you  have  ever  watched  a  camera-shutter  work 
carn'^o/thetnl  ^^  ^  twenty-fifth  of  a  second  exposure,  which  is 
the  average  time  for  a  snap-shot  with  an  ordinary 
camera,  it  will  be  interesting  to  know  that  these 
controlling  devices  of  a  key-driven  machine  must 
act  in  one-fifth  the  time  in  which  the  shutter 
allows  the  daylight  to  pass  through  the  lens  of  the 
camera. 

Think  of  it;  a  machine  built  with  the  idea  of 
offering  the  possibility  of  such  key  manipulation 
and  supplying  nothing  to  overcome  the  tremendous 
momentum  set  up  in  the  numeral  wheels  and  their 
driving  mechanism,  unless  perchance  Hill  thought 
the  operator  of  his  machine  could,  mentally,  con- 
trol the  wheels  against  over-rotation. 

Lack  of  a  proper  descriptive  term  used  to  refer 
to  an  object,  machine,  etc.,  oftentimes  leads  to  the 
use  of  an  erroneous  term.   To  call  the  Hill  inven- 


2  Sheets-Sheen 

Q.  W.  CHAPIN. 
ADDIKO  MACHINE. 

Patented  Feb.  8,  1870. 


2  Sheets-Sheets 

G.  W.  CHAPIN. 

ADDINQ  MACHINE. 

No.  99,633.  Patented  Feb.  8,  1870. 


^'rjf.3 


Chapiii  I'iiteiit  Dni\ving.s 


The  Early  Key-Driven  Art 


29 


tion  an  adding  machine  is  erroneous  since  it  would 
not  add  correctly.  It  is  as  great  an  error  as  it 
would  be  to  refer  to  the  Langley  aeroplane  as  a 
flying  machine. 

When  the  Wright  brothers  added  the  element 
that  was  lacking  in  the  Langley  plane,  a  real  flying 
machine  was  produced.  But  without  that  element 
the  Langley  plane  was  not  a  flying  machine.  Like- 
wise, without  means  for  controlling  the  numeral 
wheels,  the  Hill  invention  was  not  an  adding 
machine.  The  only  term  that  may  be  correctly 
applied  to  the  Hill  invention  is  "adding  mechan- 
ism," which  is  broad  enough  to  cover  its  incom- 
pleteness. And  yet  many  thousands  of  people  who 
have  seen  the  Hill  invention  at  the  National 
Museum  have  probably  carried  away  the  idea  that 
the  Hill  invention  was  a  perfectly  good  key-driven 
adding  machine. 

Lest  we  leave  unmentioned  two  machines  that 
might  be  misconstrued  to  hold  some  of  the  fea- 
tures of  the  Art,  attention  is  called  to  patents 
issued  to  G.  W.  Chapin  in  1870  (see  illustration  on 
opposite  page),  and  A.  Stark  in  1884  (see  illustra- 
tion on  page  32). 

Chapin  Machine 

Referring  to  the  illustration  reproducing  the 
drawings  of  the  Chapin  patent,  the  reader  will 
note  that  in  Fig.  1  there  are  four  wheels  marked 
V.  These  wheels,  although  showing  no  numerals, 
are,  according  to  the  specification,  the  numeral 
wheels  of  the  machine. 

The  wheels  are  provided  with  a  one-step  ratchet 
device  for  transferring  the  tens,  consisting  of  the 
spring  frame  and  pawl  shown  in  Fig.  3,  which  is 
operated  by  a  pin  in  the  lower  wheel. 


///■//  machine 
merely  adding 
mechanism,  in- 
complete as 
operative 

inachilir 


Chapin  and 
Stark  patents 


Description 
of  Chapin 
machine 


30  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


In  Fig.  1  the  units  and  tens  wheel  are  shown 
meshed  with  their  driving  gears.  These  gears  are 
not  numbered  but  are  said  to  be  fast  to  the  shafts 
N  and  M,  respectively  (see  Fig.  2). 

Fast  on  the  shaft  M,  is  a  series  of  nine  ratchet- 
toothed  gears  marked  O,  and  a  like  series  of  gears 
P,  are  fast  to  the  shaft  N.  Co-acting  with  each 
of  these  ratchet-toothed  gears  is  a  ratchet-toothed 
rack  F,  pivoted  at  its  lower  end  to  a  key  lever  H, 
and  pressed  forward  into  engagement  with  its 
ratchet  gear  by  a  spring  G. 

The  key  levers  H,  of  which  there  are  two  sets, 
one  set  with  the  finger-pieces  K  and  the  other  with 
the  finger-pieces  J,  are  all  pivoted  on  the  block  I, 
and  held  depressed  at  the  rear  by  an  elastic  band 
L.  The  two  sets  of  racks  F,  are  each  provided 
with  a  number  of  teeth  arranged  progressively 
from  one  to  nine,  the  rack  connected  with  the  No.  1 
key  having  one  ratchet  tooth,  the  No.  2  having  two 
teeth,  etc. 
inoperaiweness  By  this  arrangement  Chapin  expected  to  add 
machine  the  units  and  tens  of  a  column  of  numerical  items, 
and  then  by  shifting  the  numeral  wheels  and  their 
transfer  devices,  which  are  mounted  on  a  frame, 
designed  for  that  purpose,  he  expected  to  add  up 
the  hundred  and  thousands  of  the  same  column  of 
items. 

It  is  hardly  conceivable  that  the  inventor  should 
have  overlooked  the  necessity  of  gauging  the 
throw  of  the  racks  F,  but  such  is  the  fact,  as  no 
provision  is  made  in  the  drawings,  neither  was 
mention  made  of  such  means  in  the  specification. 
Even  a  single  tooth  on  his  rack  F,  could,  under  a 
quick  key-stroke,  overthrow  the  numeral  wheels, 
and  the  same  is  true  of  the  carry  transfer 
mechanism. 


n  g*     m  ■< 


a  f\ 


W 


|i 


From  the  Stark  Patent  Drawings 


maimmmammmmim 


1 


The  Early  Key-Driven  Art 


The  Chapin  machine,  Hke  that  of  Hill,  was  made 
without  thought  as  to  what  would  happen  when  a 
key  was  depressed  with  a  quick  stroke,  as  there 
was  no  provision  for  control  of  the  numeral  wheels 
against  overthrow.  As  stated,  the  machine  was 
designed  to  add  two  columns  of  digits  at  a  time, 
and  with  an  attempt  to  provide  means  to  shift  the 
accumulator  mechanism,  or  the  numeral  wheels 
and  carry-transfer  devices,  so  that  columns  of 
items  having  four  places  could  be  added  by  such  a 
shift.  Such  a  machine,  of  course,  offered  less  than 
could  be  found  in  the  Hill  machine,  and  that  was 
nothing  at  all  so  far  as  a  possible  operative 
machine  is  concerned. 

The  Stark  Machine 

The  reproduction  of  the  patent  drawings  of  the 
Stark  machine  illustrated  on  the  opposite  page 
show  a  series  of  numeral  wheels,  each  provided 
with  three  sets  of  figures  running  from  1  to  9 
and  0. 

Pivotally  mounted  upon  the  axis  of  the  numeral      Description  of 
wheels  at  each  end  are  sector  gears  E^  and  arms  E*,      '*^'°'',^.  ^ 

°  '        machine 

in  which  are  pivoted  a  square  shaft  E,  extended  from 
one  arm  to  the  other  across  the  face  of  the  numeral 
wheels.  The  shaft  E,  is  claimed  to  be  held  in  its 
normal  position  by  a  spring  so  that  a  pawl,  E-, 
shif tably  mounted  on  the  shaft,  designed  to  ratchet 
or  actuate  the  numeral  wheels  forward,  may  en- 
gage with  any  one  of  the  numeral  wheel  ratchets. 

A  bail  marked  D,  is  pivoted  to  standards  AS  of 
the  frame  of  the  machine,  and  is  provided  with 
the  two  radial  racks  D',  which  mesh  with  the  sec- 
tor gears  E\  It  may  be  conceived  that  the  act 
of  depressing  the  bail  D,  will  cause  the  actuating 


34  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


pawl  E-,  to  operate  whichever  numeral  wheel  it 
engages  the  ratchet  of. 

The  bail  D,  is  held  in  its  normal  position  by  a 
spring  D-,  and  is  provided  with  nine  keys  or  fin- 
ger pieces  d,  eight  of  which  co-act  with  the 
stepped  plate  G,  to  regulate  the  additive  degree  of 
rotation  given  to  the  numeral  wheels,  while  the 
ninth  has  a  fixed  relation  with  the  bail  and  the 
bail  itself  is  stopped. 

The  keys  d,  marked  from  1  to  8,  are  pivoted  to 
the  bail  in  such  a  manner  that  their  normal  rela- 
tion to  the  bail  will  allow  them  to  pass  by  the 
steps  on  the  stepped  plate  G,  when  the  bail  is 
depressed  by  the  fixed  No.  9  key.  When,  however, 
any  one  of  the  keys  numbered  from  1  to  8  is  de- 
pressed, the  lower  end  of  the  shank  of  the  key  will 
tilt  rearward,  and,  as  the  bail  is  depressed,  offers 
a  stop  against  the  respective  step  of  the  plate  G, 
arranged  in  its  path,  thus  stopping  further  action 
of  the  actuating  pawl  E^,  but  offering  nothing  to 
prevent  the  continuation  of  the  force  of  momen- 
tum set  up  in  the  numeral  wheels  by  the  key  action. 

There  was  small  use  in  stopping  the  action  of 
the  pawl  E^,  if  the  ratchet  and  numeral  wheel,  im- 
pelled by  the  pawl,  could  continue  onward  under 
its  momentum. 

The  carry  of  the  tens  transfer  device  is  of  the 
same  order  as  that  described  in  the  Pascal  and 
Hill  machines;  that  is,  a  one-step  ratchet-motion 
actuated  by  a  cam  lug  or  pin  from  the  lower  wheel. 
The  carry  transfer  device  consists  of  the  lever  F, 
and  pawl  f*,  acting  on  the  ratchet  of  the  upper 
wheel  which  is  operated  by  the  cam  lugs  b%  of 
the  lower  wheel  acting  on  the  arms  f^  and  f ^  of  the 
lever  F. 


W.  ROBJOHN 
improvement  in  Calculating  Machines. 
No,  130,244. 


2  Slieels--Sheel  1. 


Patented  Aug.  6,  1872. 


® 

♦x^./ 

.9 

®  ®  ®  ®  ®^®  ®  ®  ® 

eJTjr  X 


From  the  Kobjolin  Patent  Drawings 


The  Early^"Key-Driven  Art 


37 


The  machine  shown  in  the  Stark  patent  was 
provided  with  but  one  set  of  keys,  but  the  arrange- 
ment for  shifting  the  driving  ratchet  pawl  E-, 
from  one  order  to  another,  so  that  the  action  of 
the  keys  may  rotate  any  one  of  the  numeral 
wheels,  gave  the  machine  greater  capacity  than 
the  single  digit  adders ;  but  as  with  the  Chapin 
machine,  of  what  use  was  the  increase  in  capacity 
if  the  machine  would  not  add  correctly.  That  is 
about  all  that  may  be  said  of  the  Stark  machine, 
for  since  there  was  no  means  provided  by  which 
the  rotation  of  numeral  wheels  could  be  controlled, 
it  was  merely  a  device  for  rotating  numeral  wheels 
and  was  therefore  lacking  in  the  features  that 
would  give  it  a  right  to  the  title  of  an  adding 
machine. 

The  nine-key  scheme  of  the  Stark  invention, 
connectable  to  the  different  orders,  was  old,  and 
was  first  disclosed  in  the  U.  S.  Patent  to  O.  L. 
Castle  in  1857  (a  machine  operated  by  a  clock- 
spring  wound  by  hand),  but  its  use  in  either  of 
these  machines  should  not  be  construed  as  holding 
anything  in  common  with  that  found  in  some  of 
the  modern  recording  adders.  The  Castle  machine 
has  not  been  illustrated  because  it  does  not  enter 
into  the  evolution  of  the  modem  machine. 

The  ancient  Art,  or  the  Art  prior  to  the  inven- 
tion of  Parmelee,  consisted  of  mechanism  which 
could  be  controlled  by  friction  devices,  or  Geneva 
gear-lock  devices,  that  were  suitable  to  the  slow- 
acting  type  of  manipulative  means. 

The  first  attempt  at  a  positive  control  for  a  key- 
driven  adding  device  is  found  in  a  patent  issued 
to  W.  Robjohn  in  1872  (see  illustration).  As  will 
be  noted,  this  machine  was  referred  to  in  the  fore- 


Inoperativencss 
of  Slark 
machine 


.\ine  keys  com- 
mon to  a  plural- 
ity of  orders 


38  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


going  discussion  as  merely  a  single-digit  adding 
machine,  having  the  capacity  for  adding  but  one 
colum.n  of  digits  at  a  time. 

RoBJOHN  Machine 

Referring  to  the  illustration  of  the  patent  draw- 
ings of  the  Robjohn  machine,  it  will  be  noted  that 
there  are  three  sight  openings  in  the  casing 
through  which  the  registration  of  the  numeral 
wheels  may  be  read.  The  numeral  wheels,  like  those 
of  all  machines  of  this  character,  are  connected 
by  devices  of  a  similar  nature  to  those  in  the  Hill 
machine  for  carrying  the  tens,  one  operating 
between  the  units  and  tens  wheel  and  another  be- 
tween the  tens  and  hundredths  wheel. 
Description  The  units  wheel  shown  in  Fig.  3  is  connected  by 
^'^  macMne  ^^^^^^^  ^^  a  long  pin-wheel  rotor,  marked  E,  so 
that  any  rotation  of  the  rotor  E,  will  give  a  like 
rotation  to  the  units  numeral  wheel  to  which  it  is 
entrained  by  gearing. 

To  each  of  the  nine  digital  keys,  marked  B,  is 
attached  an  engaging  and  disengaging  sector  gear 
device,  which,  as  shown  in  Fig.  3,  although  nor- 
mally not  in  engagement  with  the  rotor  E,  will 
upon  depression  of  its  attached  key,  engage  the 
rotor  and  turn  it. 

A  stop  device  is  supplied  for  the  key  action, 
which  in  turn  was  supposed  to  stop  the  gear 
action;  that  seems  rather  doubtful.  However, 
an  alternative  device  is  shown  in  Figs.  4  and  5, 
which  provides  what  may  without  question  be 
called  a  stop  device  to  prevent  over-rotation  of 
the  units  wheel  under  direct  key  action. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  engaging  and  disengag- 
ing gear  device  is  here  shown  in  the  form  of  a 


(No  Model.) 


No.  314.561, 


M.   BOUCHET.  2  Sheets-Sheet  1. 

ADDING  MACHINE. 

Patented  Mar.  31,  1885. 


WITNESS^. 


INVENTOR. 


From  Drawings  of  Bouchet  Patent  314,501 


The  Eakly  Key-Driven  Art  41 


gear-toothed  rack  and  that  the  key  stem  is  pro- 
vided with  a  projecting  arm  ending  in  a  down- 
wardly projecting  tooth  or  detent  which  may 
engage  the  rotor  E,  and  stop  it  at  the  end  of  the 
downward  key  action.  While  the  stopping  of  the 
rotor  shows  a  control  in  the  Rob  John  machine 
which  takes  place  under  direct  action  from  the 
keys  to  prevent  overthrow  of  the  units  numeral 
wheel,  it  did  not  prevent  the  overflow  of  the 
higher  or  tens  wheels,  if  a  carry  should  take 
place.  There  was  no  provision  for  a  control 
of  the  numeral  wheels  under  the  action  received 
from  the  carry  of  the  tens  by  the  transfer 
mechanism. 

The  first  attempt  to  control  the  carried  wheel  First  control  for  a 
in  a  key-driven  machine  is  found  in  a  patent  issued  ^"^^^f"^  numeral 
to  Bouchet  in  1882  (see  illustration  on  opposite 
page) ;  but  it  was  a  Geneva  motion  gearing  which, 
as  is  generally  known,  may  act  to  transmit  power 
and  then  act  to  lock  the  wheel  to  which  the  power 
has  been  transmitted  until  it  is  again  to  be  turned 
through  the  same  source.  Such  a  geared  up  and 
locked  relation  between  the  numeral  wheels,  of 
course,  made  the  turning  of  the  higher  wheel 
(which  had  been  so  locked)  by  another  set  of  key- 
mechanism  an  impossibility. 

Bouchet  ^Machine 

The  illustration  of  the  Bouchet  machine  on  the 
opposite  page  was  reproduced  from  the  drawings 
of  the  patent  which  is  the  nearest  to  the  machine 
that  was  placed  on  the  market.  The  numeral 
wheels,  like  most  of  the  single-digit  adders,  are 
three  in  number,  and  consist  of  the  prime  actuated, 
or  units  wheel,  and  two  overflow  wheels  to  receive 


machine 


42  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


the  carry  of  the  tens.  The  units  wheel  has  fixed  to 
it  a  long  10-tooth  pinion  or  rotor  I,  with  which 
nine  internal  segmental  gear  racks  L,  are  arranged 
to  engage  and  turn  the  units  wheel  through  their 
nine  varying  additive  degrees  of  rotation. 
Description  "^^^  segmental  gear  racks  L,  are  normally  out  of 
of  Bouchet  mesh  with  the  pinion  I,  and  are  fast  to  the  key 
levers  E,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  first  depres- 
sion of  a  key  causes  its  rack  to  rock  forward  and 
engage  with  the  pinion  I,  and  further  depression 
moves  the  rack  upward  and  rotates  the  pinion  and 
units  numeral  wheel.  It  will  be  noted  that  this  en- 
gaging and  disengaging  gear  action  is  in  principle 
like  that  of  Robjohn. 

The  transfer  devices  for  the  carry  of  the  tens, 
as  already  stated,  belong  to  that  class  of  mechan- 
ism commonly  knov/n  as  the  "Geneva  motion."  It 
consists  of  a  mutilated  or  one-tooth  gear  fast  to 
the  units  wheel  operating  with  a  nine-tooth  gear, 
marked  DS  loosely  mounted  on  an  axis  parallel  to 
the  numeral  wheel  axis.  Each  revolution  of  the 
units  wheel  moves  the  nine-tooth  gear  three  spaces, 
and  in  turn  moves  the  next  higher  numeral  wheel 
to  which  it  is  geared  far  enough  to  register  one 
point  or  the  carry.  A  circular  notched  disc,  marked 
S,  is  fast  to  the  units  wheel,  and  the  nine-tooth 
gear  D^  has  part  of  two  out  of  every  three  of  its 
teeth  mutilated  or  cut  away  to  make  a  convex  sur- 
face for  the  notched  disc  to  rotate  in. 

With  such  construction  the  nine-tooth  gear  may 
not  rotate  or  become  displaced  as  long  as  the 
periphery  of  the  disc  continues  to  occupy  any  one 
of  the  three  convex  spaces  of  the  nine-tooth  gear. 
When,  however,  the  notch  of  the  disc  is  presented 
to  the  mutilated  portion  of  the  nine-tooth  gear, 


The  Early  Key-Driven  Art 


48 


the  said  gear  is  unlocked.  This  unlocking  is  co- 
incident to  the  engagement  of  the  single  tooth  of 
the  numeral  wheel-gear  with  the  nine-tooth  gear 
and  the  passing  of  the  numeral  wheel  from  9  to  0, 
during  which  the  nine-tooth  gear  will  be  moved 
three  spaces,  and  will  be  again  locked  as  the  notch 
in  the  disc  passes  and  the  periphery  fills  the. next 
convex  space  of  the  mutilated  nine-tooth  gear. 

The  Bouchet  machine  was  manufactured  and 
sold  to  some  extent,  but  never  became  popular,  as 
it  lacked  capacity.  Machines  of  such  limited 
capacity  could  not  compete  with  ordinary  ac- 
countants, much  less  with  those  who  could  mentally 
add  from  two  to  four  columns  at  a  clip.  Aside  from 
the  capacity  feature,  there  was  another  reason 
why  these  single-order  machines  were  useless, 
except  to  those  who  could  not  add  mentally.  Mul- 
tiple forms  of  calculation,  that  is,  multiplication 
and  division,  call  for  a  machine  having  a  multi- 
plicity of  orders.  The  capacity  of  a  single  order 
would  be  but  9x9,  which  requires  no  machine  at 
all — a  seven-year-old  child  knows  that.  To  multi- 
ply 58964x6824,  however,  is  a  different  thing,  and 
requires  a  multiple-order  calculator. 

It  is  perhaps  well  at  this  time  to  point  out  the 
misuse  of  the  term  calculating  where  it  is  applied 
to  machines  having  only  a  capacity  for  certain 
forms  of  calculating  as  compared  with  machines 
which  perfoiTn  in  a  practical  way  all  forms  of  cal- 
culation, that  is,  addition,  multiplication,  subtrac- 
tion and  division.  To  apply  the  term  "calculating 
machine"  to  a  machine  having  anything  less  than 
a  capacity  for  all  these  forms  is  erroneous. 

An  adding  machine  may  perform  one  of  the 
forms  of  calculation,  but  to  call  it  a  calculating 


Bouchel  machine 
marketed 


Misuse  of  the 

term^Calculatirvj 

Machine" 


44  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


machine  when  it  has  no  capacity  for  division,  sub- 
traction or  multiplication,  is  an  error ;  and  yet  we 
find  the  U.  S.  Patent  Office  records  stuffed  full  of 
patents  granted  on  machines  thus  erroneously 
named.  The  term  calculating  is  the  broad  term 
covering  all  forms  of  calculation,  and  machines 
performing  less  should  be  designated  according  to 
their  specific  capacities. 

It  is  true  that  adding  is  calculating,  and  under 
these  circumstances,  why  then  may  not  an  adding 
machine  be  called  a  calculator?  The  answer  is 
that  it  may  be  calculating  to  add ;  it  may  be  calcu- 
lating to  either  subtract,  multiply  or  divide;  but 
if  a  machine  adds  and  is  lacking  in  the  means  of 
performing  the  other  forms  of  calculation,  it  is 
only  part  of  a  calculating  machine  and  lacks  the 
features  that  will  give  it  title  to  being  a  full-fledged 
calculator.* 

Considerable  contention  was  raised  by  parties 
in  a  late  patent  suit  as  to  what  constituted  the 
make-up  of  a  calculating  machine.  One  of  the 
attorneys  contended  that  construction  was  the 
only  thing  that  would  distinguish  a  calculating 
machine.  But  as  machines  are  named  by  their 
functioning,  the  contention  does  not  hold  water. 
That  is  to  say:  A  machine  may  be  a  calculating 
machine  and  yet  its  construction  be  such  that  it 
performs  its  functions  of  negative  and  positive 
calculation  without  reversal  of  its  action. 

Again,  a  machine  may  be  a  calculating  machine 
and  operate  in  one  direction  for  positive  calcula- 
tion and  the  reverse  for  negative  calculation.  As 
long  as  the  machine  has  been  so  arranged  that  all 
forms  of  calculation  may  be  performed  by  it  with- 

*  Note:  The  title  of  this  book  does  not  coincide  with  the  above 
argument,  but  in  view  of  the  common  use  of  the  term  "calculating" 
its  application  is  better  understood. 


ii5«»MIW«wwww»w<wryKBi 


(Mode).) 


No.  293,809. 


C.  G.  SPALDING. 

ADDING  MACHINE 

Patented  Feb.  19,  1884. 


3    4     5    <; 


^^s 


.rif. 


fffPFFP 


-^  L^i^l^i^: 


^.>- 


/'/^  // 


^^ 


j-if- 


mmmm-i 


Drawings  of  Spalding  Patent  No.  29.3,809 


The  Early  Key-Driven  Art  47 


Spalding 
machine 


out  mental  computation,  and  the  machine  has  a 
reasonable  capacity  of  at  least  eight  orders,  it 
should  be  entitled  to  be  called  a  calculating  machine. 

The  Spalding  Machine 

The  next  machine  that  has  any  bearing  on  the 
key-driven  Art  of  which  there  is  a  record,  is  illus- 
trated in  a  patent  granted  to  C.  G.  Spalding  in 
1884  (see  illustration  on  opposite  page).  The 
Spalding  invention,  like  that  of  Bouchet,  was  pro- 
vided with  control  for  its  primary  actuation  and 
control  for  its  secondary  or  carrying  actuation. 

Referring  to  the  Spalding  machine  reproduced  Description  of 
from  the  drawings  of  his  patent,  the  reader  will 
note  that  in  place  of  the  units  and  tens  numeral 
wheels,  a  clock  hand  has  been  supplied,  co-operat- 
ing with  a  dial  graduated  from  0  to  99,  showing 
the  figures  5,  10,  15,  etc.,  to  95,  for  every  five 
graduations. 

Another  similar  hand  or  arrow  and  dial  to  reg- 
ister the  hundreds  is  also  provided,  having  a  capac- 
ity to  register  nineteen  hundred.  Attached  to  the 
arrows,  through  a  shaft  connection  at  the  back  of 
the  casing  are  ratchet  wheels,  having  respectively 
the  same  number  of  teeth  as  the  graduation  of  the 
dial  to  which  each  hand  belongs. 

Co-operating  with  the  hundred-tooth  ratchet  of 
the  units  and  tens  register  hand  is  a  ratchet  and 
lever  motion  device  (see  Fig.  2)  to  turn  the  arrow 
from  one  to  nine  points  of  the  graduation  of  the 
dial.  The  ratchet  and  lever-motion  device  consists  of 
the  spring-pressed  pawl  E,  mounted  on  the  lever 
arm  D,  engaging  the  hundred-tooth  ratchet,  the 
link  or  push-rod  F,  the  lever  G,  and  its  spring  0. 
It  will  be  noted  that  a  downward  action  of  the 
lever  G,  will,  through  the  rod  F,  cause  a  like  down- 


48  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


ward  action  of  the  lever  D,  causing  the  ratchet 
pawl  E  to  be  drawn  over  the  ratchet  teeth.  Upon 
the  release  of  the  lever  G,  the  spring  0,  will  return 
it  to  its  normal  position  and  through  the  named 
connecting  parts,  ratchet  forward  the  arrow. 

The  normal  position  of  the  pawl  E  is  jammed 
into  the  tooth  of  the  ratchet  and  against  the 
bracket  C,  that  forms  the  pivot  support  for  the 
pivot  shaft  of  the  arrow.  This  jammed  or  locked 
combination  serves  to  stop  the  momentum  of  the 
ratchet  wheel  at  the  end  of  the  ratcheting  action, 
and  holds  the  wheel  and  its  arrow  normally  locked 
until  the  lever  G  is  again  depressed. 

The  means  for  gauging  the  depression  and 
additive  degrees  of  action  of  the  lever  G  is  pro- 
duced through  the  slides  or  keys  marked  a,  hav- 
ing finger-pieces  c,  springs  f,  and  pins  e,  bearing 
against  the  top  of  the  lever  G,  combined  with  what 
may  be  called  a  compensating  lever  marked  K. 

The  specification  of  the  patent  states  that  the 
depression  of  a  key  will  depress  the  lever  G  and 
the  free  end  will  engage  the  bent  end  t,  of  the 
compensating  lever  K,  and  rock  its  envolute  curved 
arm  M,  upward  until  it  engages  the  pin  e  of  the 
key,  which  will  block  further  motion  of  the  parts. 

The  effectiveness  of  the  construction  shown  for 
the  lever  K  is  open  to  question. 

The  carry  of  the  hundreds  is  accomplished  by 
means  of  a  one-step  ratchet  device  represented  by 
the  parts  lever  R,  pawl  T,  spring  P,  and  operating 
pin  g.  When  the  hundred-tooth  ratchet  nears  the 
end  of  its  revolution,  the  pin  g,  made  fast  therein, 
engages  the  free  end  of  the  ratchet  lever  R,  and 
depresses  it ;  and  as  the  hand  attached  to  the  hun- 
dred-tooth ratchet  wheel  passes  from  99  to  0  the 


The  Early  Key-Driven  Art 


pin  g  passes  off  the  end  of  the  ratchet  lever  R,  and 
the  spring  P  retracts  the  lever  ratcheting  the 
twenty-tooth  wheel  and  its  arrow  forward  one 
point  so  that  the  arrow  registers  one  point  greater 
on  the  hundreds  dial. 

Although  the  Spalding  means  of  control  under 
carrying  differed  from  that  of  Bouchet  in  con- 
struction, its  function  was  virtually  the  same  in 
that  it  locked  the  carried  or  higher  wheel  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  prevent  the  wheel  from  being  oper- 
ated by  an  ordinal  set  of  key  mechanism. 

And  the  control  under  key  action  would  prevent 
a  carry  being  delivered  to  that  order  through  the 
locked  relation  of  the  ratchet  and  pawl  E. 


Prime  aclualion 
of  a  carried  wheel 
imf>ossihle  in  the 
Spalding  ma- 
chine 


Wi 


The  Key-Driven  Calculator 

'HILE  these  single  digit  adding  machines 
have  been  used  to  illustrate  how  the  con- 
trol, which  was  lacking  in  the  Hill  inven- 
tion, had  been  recognized  by  other  inventors  as  a 
necessary  requisite  to  the  key-drive,  it  should  not 
be  construed  that  such  carrying  control  as  had 
been  applied  to  their  inventions  was  of  a  type  that 
could  be  used  in  the  Hill  machine  or  in  any  mul- 
tiple-order key-driven  machine.  It  was  thirty 
years  after  the  first  attempt  to  control  a  key- 
driven  machine  was  made  before  an  operative 
multiple-order  key-driven  machine,  with  a  con- 
trol that  would  prevent  over-rotation,  was  finally 
invented. 
Theory  versus  Theoretically,  it  would  seem  that  the  only  fea- 
ihe  concrete  ^^j.g  ^^  element  lacking  in  the  Art  prior  to  1886, 
to  produce  a  real  key-driven  calculator  was  means 
that  would  control  the  carrying  and  also  leave  the 
carried  wheel  free  for  key  actuation.  It  was,  how- 
ever, quite  a  different  problem.  Theoretical  func- 
tions may  be  patched  together  to  make  a  theo- 
retical machine;  but  that  is  only  theory  and  not 
the  concrete. 

To  take  fragmental  parts  of  such  machines  as 
were  disclosed  in  the  Art  and  patch  them  together 
into  anything  practical  was  impossible,  even  if 
one  had  been  familiar  with  the  Art  and  could 
devise  mechanism  to  supply  the  new  element.  That 
is,  leaving  aside  the  broad  or  generic  theoretical 
50 


The  Key-Driven  Calculator 


51 


elements,  which  today,  from  knowledge  gained  by 
later  inventions,  serve  the  make-up  of  a  key-driven 
calculator,  there  was  still  lacking  any  concrete 
example  or  specific  design  of  a  whole  machine,  as 
there  was  no  such  machine  disclosed  in  the  draw- 
ings of  patents,  or  any  known  mechanism  which, 
if  arranged  in  multiples,  would  be  operative  as  a 
practical  machine  even  if  mechanism  to  supply 
the  new  element  were  to  be  added. 

In  other  words,  while  it  is  conceded  from  our 
present  knowledge  that  all  but  one  of  the  generic 
theoretical  elements  had  been  solved  as  disclosed 
in  the  various  before-named  machines,  it  required 
the  application  of  these  elements  in  a  different 
way  from  anything  before  disclosed;  which  in 
itself  required  a  different  concrete  form  of  the 
generic  principles  for  the  whole  machine  as  well 
as  a  generic  form  of  invention  covering  the  new 
theoretical  element. 

It  may  be  easy  to  analyze  that  which  exists,  but 
quite  a  different  story  to  conceive  that  which  did 
not  exist.  With  reference  to  the  Art,  however, 
the  production  of  the  new  element  is  a  feature 
that  may  be  credited  without  question.  The  con- 
crete does  not  enter  into  it  other  than  as  proof 
that  a  new  feature  has  been  created. 

While  the  discussion  of  the  Art  from  a  scientific 
standpoint  brings  together  in  after  years  what  has 
been  accomplished  by  different  inventors,  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  any  of  these  early  inventors  had  other 
knowledge  than  what  may  possibly  have  been  ob- 
tained from  seeing  one  of  the  foreign-made  crank- 
driven  machines.  All  inventors  work  with  an  idea 
obtained  from  some  source,  but  on  the  whole  few 
copy  inventions  of  others.  When  an  Art  is  fully 
established,  however,  and  machines  representing 


.  \  //  but  one  uf 
I  he  generic  ele- 
ments solved 


Orujinalily  of 
inventions 


52  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


the  Art  are  to  be  found  on  the  market  and  the 
principal  features  of  such  machines  are  portrayed 
in  a  later  patent,  it  may  rightly  be  called  a  copy. 
To  assume,  however,  that  a  novice  has  taken  the 
trouble  to  delve  into  the  archives  of  the  patent 
office  and  study  the  scattered  theoretical  elements 
of  the  Art  and  supply  a  new  element  to  make  a 
combination  that  is  needed  to  produce  a  practical 
key-driven  calculator,  is  not  a  probable  assump- 
tion. But  allowing  such  assumption  were  possible, 
it  is  evident  that  from  anything  that  the  Art 
disclosed  prior  to  1887  it  was  not  possible  to  solve 
the  concrete  production  of  a  key-driven  calculator. 
A  conception  In  1884,  a  young  machinist,  while  running  a 
^  jinaUolation  Planer,  conceived  an  idea  from  vv^atching  its  ratchet 
feed  motion,  which  was  indirectly  responsible  for 
the  final  solution  of  the  multiple-order  key-driven 
calculating  machine.  The  motion,  which  was  like 
that  to  be  found  on  all  planing  machines,  could  be 
adjusted  to  ratchet  one,  two,  three,  four  or  more 
teeth  for  a  fine  or  coarse  feed. 

While  there  is  nothing  in  such  a  motion  that 
would  in  any  way  solve  the  problem  of  the  mod- 
em calculator,  it  was  enough  to  excite  the  ambi- 
tions of  the  man  who  did  finally  solve  it.  It  is 
stated  that  the  young  man,  after  months  of 
thought,  made  a  wooden  model,  which  he  finished 
early  in  1885.  This  model  is  extant,  and  is  illus- 
trated on  the  opposite  page. 

The  inventor  was  Dorr  E.  Felt,  who  is  well 
known  in  the  calculating-machine  Art  as  the  man- 
ufacturer of  the  "Comptometer,"  and  in  public 
life  as  a  keen  student  of  economic  and  scientific 
subjects.  The  wooden  model,  as  will  be  noted,  was 
crude,  but  it  held  the  nucleus  of  the  machine  to 
come. 


-Macaroni  I'.n.x"  Ahuit-l 


\ 


The  Key-Driven  Calculator  55 


Mr.  Felt  has  given  some  interesting  facts  re- 
garding his  experience  in  making  the  wooden 
model. 

He  says:  "Watching  the  planer-feed  set  me  to      KvoluUon  oj an 
scheming  on  ideas  for  a  machine  to  simplify  the      inveniion 
hard  grind  of  the  bookkeeper  in  his  day's  calcula- 
tion of  accounts. 

"I  realized  that  for  a  machine  to  hold  any  value 
to  an  accountant,  it  must  have  greater  capacity 
than  the  average  expert  accountant.  Now  I  knew 
that  many  accountants  could  mentally  add  four 
columns  of  figures  at  a  time,  so  I  decided  that  I 
must  beat  that  in  designing  my  machine.  There- 
fore, I  worked  on  the  principle  of  duplicate  denom- 
inational orders  that  could  be  stretched  to  any  ca- 
pacity within  reason.  The  plan  I  finally  settled  on 
is  displayed  in  what  is  generally  known  as  the 
"Macaroni  Box"  model.  This  crude  model  was  made 
under  rather  adverse  circumstances. 

"The  construction  of  such  a  complicated  machine 
from  metal,  as  I  had  schemed  up,  was  not  within 
my  reach  from  a  monetaiy  standpoint,  so  I  decided 
to  put  my  ideas  into  wood. 

"It  was  near  Thanksgiving  Day  of  1884,  and  I  Trials  of  an 
decided  to  use  the  holiday  in  the  construction  of 
the  wooden  model.  I  went  to  the  grocer's  and 
selected  a  box  which  seemed  to  me  to  be  about  the 
right  size  for  the  casing.  It  was  a  macaroni  box, 
so  I  have  always  called  it  the  macaroni  box  model. 
For  keys  I  procured  some  meat  skewers  from  the 
butcher  around  the  corner  and  some  staples  from 
a  hardware  store  for  the  key  guides  and  an  assort- 
ment of  elastic  bands  to  be  used  for  springs.  When 
Thanksgiving  day  came  I  got  up  early  and  went  to 
work  with  a  few  tools,  principally  a  jack  knife. 


ini'prilor 


Dorr  E.  Fi-lt 


56  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


"I  soon  discovered  that  there  were  some  parts 
which  would  require  better  tools  than  I  had  at 
hand  for  the  purpose,  and  when  night  came  I 
found  that  the  model  I  had  expected  to  construct 
in  a  day  was  a  long  way  from  being  complete  or 
in  working  order.  I  finally  had  some  of  the  parts 
made  out  of  metal,  and  finished  the  model  soon 
after  New  Year's  day,  1885." 
Tliejirsl  By  further  experimenting  the  scheme  of  the 
Comptometer  ^ooden  modcl  was  improved  upon,  and  Felt  pro- 
duced, in  the  fall  of  1886,  a  finished  practical 
machine  made  of  metal.  This  machine  is  illus- 
trated on  the  opposite  page. 

The  Felt  Calculating  Machine 

Referring  to  the  illustration  of  Felt's  first  metal 
machine,  it  will  be  noted  that  the  machine  has 
been  partly  dismantled.  The  model  was  robbed  of 
some  of  its  parts  to  be  used  as  samples  for  the 
manufacture  of  a  lot  of  machines  that  were  made 
later.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  this  machine  is  the 
first  operative  multiple-order  key-driven  calculat- 
ing machine  made,  it  seems  a  shame  that  it  had  to 
be  so  dismantled;  but  the  remaining  orders  are 
operative  and  serve  well  to  demonstrate  the  claims 
held  for  it. 
Felt  patent  The  mechanism  of  the  machine  is  illustrated  in 
the  reproduction  of  the  drawings  of  Felt's  patent, 
371,496,  on  page  58.  The  specification  of  this 
patent  shows  that  it  was  applied  for  in  March, 
1887,  and  issued  October  11,  1887. 

From  the  outward  appearance  of  the  machine  it 
has  the  same  general  scheme  of  formation  as  is 
disclosed  in  the  wooden  model. 

The  constructional  scheme  of  the  mechanism 
consists  of  a  series  of  numeral  wheels,  marked  A 


371,^96 


(5)®@®©@0®@ 


0C.®  @  ®  ©  @  0  ©  @ 


©  ®  ®  ®  @  ®  © 


From  Drawings  of  Felt  Patent  No.  .371,490 


The  Key-Driven  Calculator 


in  the  patent  drawings.    Each  wheel  is  provided      Description  of 

.    ,     ,         11  1  J.-  -ii-     ^u  f^^'^  calculator 

With  a  ratchet  wheel,  and  co-acting  with  the 
ratchet  is  a  pawl  mounted  on  a  disc  E-,  carried  by 
the  pinion  E\  which  is  rotatably  mounted  on  the 
same  axis  as  the  numeral  wheel.  The  arrangement 
of  these  parts  is  such  that  a  rotating  motion 
given  any  of  the  pinions  E\  in  a  clockwise  direc- 
tion, as  shown  in  the  drawings,  would  give  a  like 
action  to  their  respective  numeral  wheels ;  but  any 
motion  of  the  pinions  in  an  anti-clockwise  direc- 
tion would  have  no  effect  on  the  numeral  wheels, 
owing  to  back-stop  pawls  K,  and  stop-pins  T,  pro- 
vided to  allow  movement  of  the  numeral  wheels  in 
but  one  direction. 

Co-acting  with  each  pinion  E%  is  shown  a  long 
lever  D,  pivoted  at  the  rear  of  the  machine  and 
provided  with  a  segmental  gear  rack  which  meshes 
with  the  teeth  of  the  pinion  E\  This  lever  comes 
under  what  is  now  generally  termed  a  segment 
lever. 

Each  lever  is  provided  with  a  spring  S,  which 
nonnally  holds  the  front  or  rack  end  upward  in 
the  position  shown  in  Fig.  1,  and  has  co-acting 
with  it  a  series  of  nine  depressable  keys  which 
protrude  through  the  casing  and  contact  with  the 
upper  edge  of  the  lever. 

The  arrangement  of  the  keys  with  their  segment 
levers  provides  that  the  depression  of  any  key  will 
depress  the  segment  lever  of  that  order,  which  in 
turn  will  rotate  the  pinion  E^  and  its  numeral  wheel. 

While  this  arrangement  is  such  that  each  key 
of  a  series  gives  a  different  degree  of  leverage 
action  to  the  segment  lever,  and  in  turn  a  degree 
of  rotation  to  the  numeral  wheel  of  the  same  order 
in  accordance  with  the  numerical  value  of  the  key 


Oeigin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


depressed,  it  may  be  conceived  that  the  ny)mentum 
set  up  by  the  quick  stroke  of  a  key  would  set  the 
numeral  wheel  spinning  perhaps  two  or  three  revo- 
lutions, or  at  any  rate  way  beyond  the  point  it 
should  stop  at  to  register  correctly. 

To  preserve  correct  actuation  of  the  mechanism 
and  overcome  its  momentum,  Felt  provided  a 
detent  toothed  lever  for  each  numeral  wheel,  which 
will  be  found  marked  J^  in  the  drawings.  To  this 
lever  he  linked  another  lever  G,  which  extended 
below  the  keys,  and  arranged  the  length  of  the 
key  stems  so  that  when  each  key  had  revolved 
the  numeral  wheel  the  proper  distance,  the  key 
will  have  engaged  the  lever  G,  and  through  the 
link  connection  will  have  caused  the  detent  tooth 
of  the  lever  J^  to  engage  one  of  the  pins  T,  of  the 
numeral  wheel,  thus  bringing  the  numeral  wheel 
and  the  whole  train  of  mechanism  to  a  dead  stop. 

This  combination  was  timed  so  that  the  (1)  key 
would  add  one,  the  (2)  key  would  add  two,  etc.,  up 
to  nine  for  the  (9)  key.  Thus  the  prime  actuation 
of  each  wheel  was  made  safe  and  positive. 
Recapitulation  of  Before  explaining  the  means  by  which  the  carry 
*"  ^'^^calculater  ^f  the  tens  was  effected  in  the  Felt  machine 
without  interfering  with  multiple  -  order  prime 
actuation,  it  will  perhaps  help  the  reader  to  recap- 
itulate on  what  the  x\rt  already  offered. 

Going  back  to  the  Art,  prior  to  Felt's  invention, 
there  are  a  few  facts  worth  reconsidering  that  point 
to  the  broadly  new  contributions  presented  in  the 
Felt  invention,  and  combining  these  facts  with  a 
little  theory  may  perhaps  give  a  clearer  under- 
standing of  what  was  put  into  practice. 

In  most  lines  of  mechanical  engineering  in  the 
past,  the  term  "theory"  connected  with  mechanical 


The  Key-Driven  Calculator 


61 


construction  was  a  bugaboo.  But  the  solution  of 
the  modern  calculating  machine  was  wholly  depen- 
dent upon  it. 

Let  us  summarize  on  the  Art,  prior  to  Felt's  in- 
vention. A  calculating  machine  that  would  calcu- 
late, if  we  eliminate  the  key-driven  feature,  was 
old.  The  key-driven  feature  applied  to  adding 
mechanism  was  old  as  adapted  to  a  single-order 
machine  with  a  capacity  for  adding  only  a  single 
column  of  digits. 

Hill  attempted  to  make  a  multiple  order  key- 
driven  machine,  but  failed  because  he  did  not 
theorize  on  the  necessities  involved  in  the  physical 
laws  of  mechanics. 

Hill  saw  only  the  columnar  arrangement  of  the 
ordinal  division  of  the  keyboard,  and  his  thought 
did  not  pass  beyond  such  relation  of  the  keys  for 
conveyance.  There  is  no  desire  to  belittle  this 
feature,  but  it  did  not  solve  the  problem  that  was 
set  forth  in  the  specification  and  claims  of  his 
patent ;  neither  did  it  solve  it  for  anyone  else  who 
wished  to  undertake  the  making  of  such  a  machine. 

The  introduction  of  keys  as  a  driving  feature 
in  the  calculating  machine  Art  demanded  design 
and  construction  suitable  to  control  the  new 
idiosyncrasies  of  force  and  motion  injected  into 
the  Art  by  their  use,  of  which  the  elements  of  in- 
ertia and  momentum  were  the  most  troublesome. 

Hill,  in  the  design  and  construction  of  his 
machine,  ignored  these  two  elementary  features 
of  mechanics  and  paid  the  penalty  by  defeat.  The 
tremendous  speed  transmitted  to  the  parts  of  a 
key-driven  machine,  which  has  already  been  illus- 
trated, required  that  lightness  in  construction 
which  is  absolutely  necessary  to  reduce  inertia  to 


Why  Hill  failed 
to  produce  an 
operative  ma- 
chine 


Idiosyncrasies 
of  force  and 
motion  increased 
by  use  of  keys 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Light  construc- 
tion a  feature 


Operative  fea- 
tures necessary 


a  minimum,  should  be  observed.  The  Hill  machine 
design  is  absolutely  lacking  in  such  thought.  The 
dfameter  of  the  numeral  wheel  and  its  heavy  con- 
struction alone  show  this.  Lightness  of  construc- 
tion also  enters  into  the  control  of  momentum 
when  the  mechanism  must  suddenly  be  brought  to 
a  dead  stop  in  its  lightning-speed  action.  A  heavily- 
constructed  numeral  wheel  like  that  shown  in  the 
Hill  patent  would  be  as  hard  to  check  as  it  would 
to  start,  even  if  Hill  had  provided  means  for  check- 
ing it. 

Strength  of  design  and  construction,  without 
the  usual  increase  in  weight  to  attain  such  end, 
but  above  all,  the  absolute  control  of  momentum, 
were  features  that  had  to  be  worked  out. 

Rob  John  partly  recognized  these  features,  but 
he  limited  the  application  of  such  reasoning  to 
the  prime  actuation  of  a  single  order,  and  made 
nothing  operable  in  a  multiple  key-driven  machine. 

Spalding  and  Bouchet  recognized  that  the  appli- 
cation of  control  was  necessary  for  both  prime 
actuation  and  carrying,  but,  like  Rob  John,  they 
devised  nothing  that  would  operate  with  a  series 
of  keys  beyond  a  single  order. 

An  operative  principle  for  control  under  prime 
actuation  was  perhaps  present  in  some  of  the 
single-order  key-driven  machines,  but  whatever 
existed  was  applied  to  machines  with  keys 
arranged  in  the  bank  form  of  construction,  and, 
to  be  used  with  the  keys  in  columnar  formation, 
required  at  least  a  new  constructive  type  of  inven- 
tion. But  none  of  the  means  of  control  for  carry- 
ing, prior  to  Felt's  invention,  held  any  feature 
that  would  solve  the  problem  in  a  multiple-order 
machine. 


The  Key-Driven  Calculator 


While  all  the  machines  referred  to  have  not  been 
illustrated  and  described  here,  fair  samples  of  the 
type  that  have  any  pertinence  to  the  Art  have  been 
discussed,  and  those  not  illustrated  would  add 
nothing  more  than  has  been  shown.  A  classifica- 
tion of  the  inventions  referred  to  may  be  made  as 
follows : 

Parmelee  and  Stetner  had  no  carrying  mechan- 
ism; Hill,  Robjohn,  Borland  and  Hoffman,  Swem, 
Lindholm  and  Smith  had  no  control  for  the  carry. 
Carroll,  Bouchet  and  Spalding  show  a  control  for 
the  carrying  action,  which  in  itself  would  defeat 
the  use  of  a  higher  wheel  for  prime  actuation,  and 
which  obviously  would  also  defeat  its  use  in  a 
multiple-order  key-driven  machine. 

One  of  the  principal  reasons  why  theory  was 
necessary  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  key-driven 
calculator  existed  in  the  impossibility  of  seeing 
what  took  place  in  the  action  of  the  mechanism 
under  the  lightning  speed  which  it  receives  in 
operation.  Almost  any  old  device  could  be  made  to 
operate  if  moved  slow  enough  to  see  and  study 
its  action;  but  the  same  mechanism  that  would 
operate  under  slow  action  would  not  operate  cor- 
rectly under  the  lightning-speed  action  they  could 
receive  from  key  depression.  Only  theoretical 
reasoning  could  be  used  to  analyze  the  cause  when 
key-driven  mechanism  failed  to  operate  correctly. 

Referring  again  to  the  drawings  of  the  Felt 
patent,  which  illustrate  the  first  embodiment  of 
a  multiple-order  key-driven  calculating  machine, 
we  find,  what  Felt  calls  in  the  claims  and  specifica- 
tions, a  carrying  mechanism  for  a  multiple-order 
key-driven  calculating  machine.  This  mechanism 
was,  as  set  forth  in  the  specification,  a  mechanism 


Class ijicat ion  of 
the  features  con- 
la  iued  in  the 
early  Art  of  key - 
(Irivrn  nidcliines 


Carrying  mech- 
an  ism  of  Fell's 
calculator 


64 


Origin  of  Modern  Caculating  Machines 


Transfer 
devices 


Carrying  mechan- 
ism versus  mere 
transfer  devices 


for  transferring  the  tens,  which  have  been  accu- 
mulated by  one  order,  to  a  higher  order,  by  adding 
one  to  the  wheel  of  higher  order  for  each  accumu- 
lation of  ten  by  the  lower  order  wheel.  This,  in  the 
Felt  machine,  as  in  most  machines,  was  eifected 
by  the  rotation  of  a  numbered  drum,  called  the 
numeral  wheel,  marked  with  the  nine  digits  and 
cipher. 

The  term  "transfer  device"  for  such  mechanism 
was  in  common  use,  and  as  a  term  it  fits  certain 
parts  of  all  classes  of  devices  used  for  that  pur- 
pose, whether  for  a  crank-driven,  key-driven,  or 
any  other  type  of  multiple-order  or  single-order 
machine.  But  in  the  Felt  invention  we  find  it  was 
not  the  simple  device  generally  used  for  trans- 
ferring the  tens.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  combination  of 
devices  co-acting  with  each  other  which,  in  the 
specification  of  the  patent,  was  termed  the  carry- 
ing mechanism. 

Now,  carrying  mechanism  may  in  a  sense  be 
termed  a  transfer  device,  as  one  of  its  functions 
is  that  of  transferring  power  to  carry  the  tens, 
but  a  mere  transfer  device  may  not  be  truthfully 
termed  a  carrying  mechanism  for  a  multiple-order 
key-driven  machine  unless  it  performs  the  func- 
tions that  go  to  make  up  a  correct  carrying  of  the 
tens  in  that  class  of  machine,  and  which  we  find 
laid  down  under  the  head  of  carrying  mechanism 
in  the  Felt  patents,  where  we  find  the  first  opera- 
tive carrying  mechanism  ever  invented  for  a 
multiple-order  key-driven  machine. 

The  functions  demanded  of  such  a  piece  of 
mechanism  are  as  follows:  First,  the  storing  of 
power  to  perform  the  carry ;  second,  the  unlock- 
ing of  the  numeral  wheel  to  be  carried ;  third,  the 


I 


The  Key-Driven  Calculator  65 


delivery  of  the  power  stored  to  perform  such 
carry;  fourth,  the  stopping  and  locking  of  the 
carried  wheel  when  it  has  been  moved  to  register 
such  carry;  and  fifth,  clearing  the  carrying-lock 
during  prime  actuation.  A  seemingly  simple  oper- 
ation, but  let  those  who  have  tried  to  construct 
such  mechanism  judge;  they  at  least  have  some 
idea  of  it  and  they  will  no  doubt  bow  their  heads 
in  acknowledgment  of  the  difficulties  involved  in 
this  accomplishment. 

Mechanism  for  carrying  the  tens  in  single  digit 
adders  was  one  thing,  and  such  as  was  used  could 
well  be  called  a  transfer  device;  but  mechanism 
for  carrying  the  tens  in  a  real  key-driven  calculat- 
ing machine  was  another  thing,  and  a  feature  not 
solved  until  Felt  solved  it,  and  justly  called  such 
combination  of  devices  a  "carrying  mechanism." 

In  the  Felt  machine,  the  carrying  mechanism  Details  of  Felt 
consisted  of  a  lever  and  ratchet  pawl  action,  con-  mechanism 
structed  of  the  parts  M,  m-,  operated  by  a  spring 
m,  the  pawl  acting  upon  the  numeral  wheel  pins 
T,  to  ratchet  the  wheel  forward  under  the  spring 
power.  The  power  in  the  spring  was  developed 
from  the  rotation  of  the  lower  wheel,  which 
through  the  means  of  an  envolute  cam*  attached 
to  left  side  of  each  wheel,  operated  the  cariying 
lever  in  the  opposite  direction  to  that  in  which  it 
was  operated  by  the  spring.  As  the  carrying  lever 
passed  the  highest  point  of  the  cam  spiral  and 
dropped  off,  the  stored  power  in  the  spring  re- 
tracted the  lever  M,  and  the  pawl  m-,  acting  on  the 
higher  order  wheel  pins  T,  and  moved  it  one-tenth 
of  a  revolution. 

*Note:    As  all  the  drawings  of  the  Felt  patent  are  not  reproduced 
here,  the  cam  is  not  shown. 


66  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


This  part  of  the  mechanism  was  in  principle  an 
old  and  commonly-used  device  for  a  one-step 
ratchet  motion  used  in  the  carry  of  the  tens.  It 
served  as  a  means  of  storing  and  transferring 
power  from  the  lower  wheel  to  actuate  the  higher 
wheel  in  a  carrying  operation,  but  a  wholly  un- 
qualified action  without  control. 

In  the  Felt  machine  a  spring-actuated  lever  N, 
mounted  on  the  same  axis  with  the  carrying  lever, 
and  provided  with  a  detent  stop-hook  at  its  upper 
end,  served  to  engage  the  numeral  wheel  at  the 
end  of  its  carried  action,  and  normally  hold  it 
locked. 

An  arm  or  pin  P,  fixed  in  and  extending  from 
the  left  side  of  the  carrying  lever  and  through 
a  hole  in  the  detent  lever,  acted  to  withdraw  the 
detent  lever  from  its  locking  engagement  with  the 
numeral  wheel  as  the  carrying  lever  reached  the 
extreme  point  of  retraction ;  thus  the  wheel  to  be 
carried  was  unlocked. 

Pivoted  to  the  side  of  the  detent  lever  is  a  catch 
O.  This  catch  or  latch  is  so  arranged  as  to  hook 
on  to  a  cross-rod  q,  especially  constructed  to  co- 
act  with  the  catch  and  hold  the  detent-lever 
against  immediate  relocking  of  the  numeral  wheel 
as  the  carrying  lever  and  pawl  act  in  a  carrying 
motion.  The  latch  has  a  tail  or  arm  p,  which  co- 
acts  with  the  pin  P  on  the  carrying  lever  in  such 
a  way  as  to  release  the  latch  as  the  carrying  lever 
finishes  its  carrying  function. 

Thus  the  detent  lever  N  is  again  free  to  engage 
one  of  the  control  or  stop-pins  T  to  stop  and  lock 
the  carried  numeral  wheel  when  the  carrying  lever 
and  pawl,  through  the  action  of  the  spring  stored 
in  the  carrying,  has  moved  the  wheel  the  proper 
distance. 


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The  Key-Driven  Calculator  69 


A  lot  of  functions  to  take  place  in  1/165  of  a 
second,  but  it  worked.  The  timing  of  the  stop  and 
locking  detents,  of  course,  was  one  of  the  finest 
features. 

The  normal  engagem.ent  of  the  carrying  detent, 
it  may  be  understood,  would  prevent  the  move- 
ment of  the  wheel  by  key  action  or  prime  actua- 
tion, but  the  patent  shows  how  Felt  overcame  this. 

The  carrying  stop  and  locking  detent  lever  N  is 
provided  with  a  cam-arm  or  pin  N,  which  was  ar- 
ranged to  co-act  with  the  cam  disc  E  (see  Fig.  1), 
fast  to  the  prime  actuating  pinion  E.  The  cam  sur- 
face was  short  and  performed  its  function  during  a 
short  lost  motion  arranged  to  take  place  before 
the  ratchet  pawl  would  pick  up  and  move  the 
numeral  wheel  under  key  actuation. 

The  camming  action  was  outward  and  away 
from  the  center,  and  thus  released  the  carrying 
stop  from  its  locking  position  with  the  numeral 
wheel,  and  continued  rotation  of  the  pinion  and 
cam  disc  would  hold  the  lock  out  of  action  until 
the  parts  had  returned  to  normal. 

With  the  return  action  of  the  keys,  segment 
lever,  pinion  and  cam  disc,  through  the  action  of 
a  spring  attached  to  the  segment  lever,  the  carry- 
ing stop  detent  will  again  engage  and  lock  the 
numeral  wheel. 

Felt  really  started  to  manufacture  his  calculat- 
ing machine  in  the  fall  of  1886,  after  perfecting 
his  invention.  Having  only  a  very  limited  amount 
of  money  with  which  to  produce  machines,  yor.ng 
Felt,  then  but  24  years  of  age,  was  obliged  to  make 
the  machines  himself,  but  with  the  aid  of  some 
dies  which  he  had  made  for  some  of  the  principal 
parts  (see  reproduction  of  bill  for  dies  on  opposite 
page),  he  was  able  to  produce  eight  finished 


Manufacture 
of  Ihr  relt 
calculator 


Early  Comptometer 


70 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Trade  name  of 
Felt  calculator 


Felt  calculator 
Exhibit  at  Na- 
ti<fnal  Museum 


machines  before  September,  1887.  Two  of  these 
machines  were  immediately  put  into  service,  for 
the  training  of  operators,  as  soon  as  they  were 
finished. 

Of  the  first  trained  operators  to  operate  these 
machines,  which  were  given  the  trademark  name 
"Comptometer,"  one  was  Geo.  D.  Mackay,  and 
another  was  Geo.  W.  Martin.  After  three  or  four 
months'  practice  Mr.  Martin  demonstrated  one  of 
these  machines  to  such  firms  as  Sprague,  Warner 
&  Co.,  Pitkin  &  Brooks,  The  Chicago  Daily  News, 
and  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  R.  R.  Co., 
and  finally  took  employment  with  the  Equitable 
Gas  Light  &  Fuel  Co.  of  Chicago  (see  letter  on 
opposite  page)  as  operator  of  the  "Comptometer." 
The  Gas  Co.  has  since  been  merged  with  several 
other  companies  into  the  Peoples  Gas  Light  & 
Coke  Co.  of  Chicago. 

A  very  high  testimonial  of  the  qualities  of  the 
Felt  invention  was  given  by  Mr.  Martin  in  1888, 
a  year  after  he  entered  the  employment  of  the 
Gas  Co.,  and  is  reproduced  on  page  72. 

Another  fine  testimonial  was  given  by  Geo.  A. 
Yulle,  Secy.  &  Treas.  of  the  Chicago  Gas  Light  & 
Coke  Co.,  in  September,  1888  (see  page  74).  Mr. 
Mackay,  the  other  operator,  secured  employment 
with  Albert  Dickinson  &  Co.,  Seed  Merchants,  as 
operator  of  the  "Comptometer."  Mr.  Mackay  was 
interviewed  a  few  months  ago,  and  was  at  that 
time,  after  thirty  years,  still  with  the  same  firm, 
and  a  strong  advocate  of  the  "Comptometer." 

In  September,  1887,  Felt  took  one  of  the  first 
eight  machines  to  Washington  and  exhibited  it  to 
Gen,  W.  S.  Rosecrans,  then  Registrar  of  the 
Treasury,  and  left  the  machine  in  the  office  of  Dr. 


1 


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Letters  IVoiii  tllliott  and  Kosecrans 


The  Key-Driven  Calculator  75 


E.  B.  Elliott,  Actuary  of  the  Treasury,  where  it 
was  put  into  constant  use.  Proof  of  the  date  of 
this  use  of  Felt's  invention  in  the  Treasury  is  set 
forth  in  the  reproduction  of  two  letters  (see  oppo- 
site page) ,  one  was  written  by  Mr.  Elliott  and  an- 
other by  Gen.  W.  S.  Rosecrans,  in  answer  to  an  in- 
quiry of  the  Hall  Typewriter  Co.  of  Salem,  Mass. 
Another  of  the  first  eight  machines  was  placed 
with  Dr.  Daniel  Draper,  of  the  N.  Y.  State  Weather 
Bureau,  New  York  City. 

Felt  finally  closed  a  deal  with  Mr.  Robert  Tarrant 
of  Chicago,  whereby  a  partnership  contract  was 
signed  November  28,  1887.  The  partnership  was 
incorporated  January  25,  1889,  under  the  name  of 
the  Felt  &  Tarrant  Mfg.  Co.,  who  are  still  manu- 
facturing and  selling  "Comptometers"  under  that 
name. 

Laying  aside  all  the  evidence  set  forth  in  the      Significanl  proof 
foregoing   history    of   key-driven    machines    and      "     ^  scaim 


their  idiosyncrasies,  significant  proof  of  Felt's 
claim  as  the  first  inventor  of  the  modem  calcu- 
lating machine  is  justified  by  the  fact  that  no  other 
multiple-order  key-driven  calculating  machine  was 
placed  on  the  market  prior  to  1902. 

Lest  we  lose  sight  of  a  most  important  feature 
in  dealing  with  the  Art  of  the  Modem  Calculator, 
we  should  call  to  mind  the  fact  that  as  Felt  was 
the  originator  of  this  type  of  machine,  he  was  also 
the  originator  of  the  scheme  of  operation  in  its 
performance  of  the  many  and  varied  short  cuts  in 
arithmetical  calculation. 

The  performance  of  calculation  on  machines  of 
the  older  Art  differed  so  entirely  from  the  new 
that  any  scheme  of  operation  that  may  have  been 
devised  for  their  use  would  lend  nothing  to  the 


ij  priority 


76 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Rules  for  opera- 
lion  an  imporl- 
anl  factor  of 
modern 
calculatcr 


derivation  of  the  new  process  for  operating  the 
key-driven  machine  of  the  new  Art. 

A  superficial  examination  of  one  of  the  instruc- 
tion books  of  the  "Comptometer"  will  convince 
most  any  one  that  it  is  not  only  the  mechanism  of 
the  machine  that  made  the  modern  calculator  so 
valuable  to  the  business  world,  but  also  the 
schemes  laid  down  for  its  use.  The  instructions 
for  figuring  Multiplication,  Subtraction,  Division, 
Square  Root,  Cube  Root,  Interest,  Exchange,  Dis- 
count, English  Currency,  etc.,  involved  hard  study 
to  devise  such  simple  methods  and  rules. 

The  instruction  books  written  by  Felt  for  the 
"Comptometer,  the  Modern  Calculator,"  reflect 
the  genius  disclosed  in  the  invention  of  the  machine 
itself. 


From  Drawings  oi  Harbour  Patent  No.  133,188 


Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording 
Machine  Art 

THE  Art  of  recording  the  addition  of  columns 
of  figures  is  old  in  principle,  but  not  in 
practice.  Many  attempts  to  make  a  machine 
that  would  record  legibly  under  all  conditions 
failed.  These  attempts  have  been  pointed  out 
from  time  to  time  as  the  first  invention  of  the 
recording -adding  machine,  especially  by  those 
desirous  of  claiming  the  laurels. 

The  first  attempt  at  arithmetical  recording  for    first  altempt  to 
which  a  patent  was  issued,  was  made  by  E.  D.    ^^^o'"^  arilhmeti- 


Barbour  in  1872  (see  illustration  on  opposite  page) . 
E.  D.  Barbour  has  also  the  honor  of  being 
the  first  inventor  to  apply  Napier's  principle  to 
mechanism  intended  to  automatically  register  the 
result  of  multiplying  a  number  having  several 
ordinal  places  by  a  single  digit  without  mentally 
adding  together  the  overlapping  figures  resulting 
from  direct  multiplication.  He  patented  this 
machine  in  1872  just  prior  to  the  issue  of  his 
arithmetical  recorder  patent.   (See  page  181.) 

The  Barbour  Machine 

The  printing  device  disclosed  in  connection 
with  the  Barbour  machine  for  recording  calcula- 
tions was  of  the  most  simple  nature,  allowing  only 
for  the  printing  of  totals  and  sub-totals. 

Its  manipulation  consisted  of  placing  a  piece 
of  paper  under  a  hinged  platen  and  depressing  the 


cal  computation 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


platen  by  hand  in  the  same  manner  that  a  time 
stamp  is  used.   The  ink  had  to  be  daubed  on  the 
type  by  a  hand  operation  to  make  legible  the  im- 
pressions of  the  type. 
Descripiion  The  patent  drawings  of  the  Barbour  machine 

of  Barbour      ^j.^  g^  fragmentary  that  it  is  almost  impossible 

machine  °  ^    '' ,  .-         ,.  ..-,        ^ 

to  draw  any  conclusion  as  to  its  functions  without 
reading  the  specifications. 

Fig.  1  represents  the  base  of  the  machine,  while 
Fig.  4  shows  a  carriage  which,  when  in  place,  is 
superimposed  above  the  base  as  illustrated  in 
Figs.  3  and  5. 

The  operation  of  the  machine  is  performed  by 
first  pulling  out  the  slides  B  (shown  in  Fig.  1), 
which  set  the  digital  degrees  of  actuation  of  each 
order;  and,  second,  by  operating  the  hand-lever 
K,  from  its  normal  position  at  0  to  1,  if  it  is  desired 
to  add,  or  to  any  of  the  other  numbers  in  accord- 
-  ance  to  the  value  of  the  multiplier  if  multiplication 
is  desired. 

The  movement  of  the  handle  K,  from  one  figure 
to  the  other,  gives  a  reciprocation  to  the  carriage, 
so  that  for  each  figure  a  reciprocation  will  take 
place. 

Each  of  the  slides  B,  has  a  series  of  nine  gear 
racks;  each  rack  has  a  number  of  teeth  ranging 
progressively  from  1  tooth  for  the  first  gear  rack 
to  9  teeth  for  the  last  rack,  thus  the  pulling  out  of 
the  slides  B  will  present  one  of  the  gear  racks  in 
line  to  a,ct  upon  the  accumulator  mechanism  of  the 
carriage  as  the  carriage  is  moved  back  and  forth 
over  it. 

The  accumulator  mechanism  consists  of  the 
register  wheels  M^  and  M-  and  the  type  wheels  M^ 


Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art  81 


and  M^  mounted  on  a  common  arbor  and  a  carry- 
transfer  device  between  the  wheels  of  each  order. 

Operating  between  the  accumulator  wheels  and 
the  racks  of  plate  B  are  a  pair  of  gears,  one  in  the 
form  of  a  lantern  wheel  loosely  mounted  on  the 
accumulator  wheel  shaft  but  connected  thereto  by 
a  ratchet  wheel  and  pawl  connection ;  the  other,  a 
small  pinion  meshing  with  the  lantern  wheel  on 
a  separate  axis,  protrudes  below  the  carriage  into 
the  path  of  the  racks. 

Thus  as  the  carriage  is  moved  by  the  recipro- 
cating device  connected  with  the  hand-lever  K, 
the  pinions  of  the  accumulator  will  engage  what- 
ever racks  have  been  set  and  the  numeral  wheels 
and  type  wheels  will  be  operated  to  give  the  result. 

The  numeral  and  type  wheels  have  two  sets  of 
figures,  one  of  which  is  used  for  addition  and  mul- 
tiplication, while  the  other  set  runs  in  the  oppo- 
site direction  for  negative  computation  or  sub- 
traction and  division. 

A  plate  arranged  with  sight  apertures  covers 
the  numeral  or  register  wheels,  while  the  type 
wheels  are  left  uncovered  to  allow  a  hinged  platen 
F,  mounted  on  the  top  of  the  carriage  (see  Fig.  3), 
to  be  swung  over  on  top  of  them  and  depressed. 

Attached  to  the  platen  F,  are  a  series  of  spring 
clips  d,  under  which  strips  of  paper  may  be  slipped 
(as  shown  by  D,  in  Fig.  4),  and  which  serves  to 
hold  the  paper  while  an  impression  is  taken. 

Thus  the  Barbour  invention  stands  in  the  Art      Barbour  machine 
as  something  to  show  that  as  early  as  1872  an      "^  ^'^"^  ^^° 
effort  was  made  to  provide  means  to  preserve  a 
record  of  calculations  by  printing  the  totals  of 
such  calculations. 


82  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


The  Baldwin  Machine 

The  next  effort  in  this  class  of  machines  is  illus- 
trated in  a  patent  issued  to  Frank  S.  Baldwin 
in  1875  (see  illustration  on  opposite  page) .  The 
Baldwin  machine  is  also  of  moment  as  having  the 
scheme  found  in  the  machines  known  as  the 
Brunsviga,  made  under  the  Odhner  patents — a 
foreign  invention,  later  than  that  of  Baldwin,  used 
extensively  abroad  and  to  a  limited  extent  in  this 
country. 

The  contribution  of  Baldwin  to  the  Art  of  record- 
ing-calculating devices  seems  to  be  only  the  roll 
paper  in  ribbon  form  and  the  application  of  the  ink 
ribbon.  The  method  used  by  Barbour  for  type  im- 
pression w^as  adapted  and  used  by  Baldwin;  that 
is,  the  hinged  platen  and  its  operation  by  hand. 

Of  the  illustrations  shown  of  the  Baldwin 
machine,  one  is  reproduced  from  the  drawings  of 
the  patent  while  the  other  is  a  photo  reproduction 
of  the  actual  machine  which  was  placed  on  the 
market,  but,  as  may  be  noted,  minus  the  printing 
or  recording  device  shown  in  the  patent  drawings. 
Description  Referring  to  the  photo  reproduction,  the  upper 

machin.  ^^w  of  figures  showing  through  the  sight  aper- 
tures in  the  casing  are  those  of  the  numeral  wheels 
which  accumulate  the  totals,  and  which  in  the 
patent  drawings  would  represent  the  type  of 
the  accumulator  wheels  for  printing  the  totals  of 
addition  and  multiplication  or  the  remainders  of 
subtraction  and  division. 

The  figures  showing  below  serve  to  register 
multiples  of  addition  and  subtraction  which  would 
read  as  the  multiplier  in  multiplications  or  the 
quotient  in  division.    These  wheels  are  the  type 


Mta 


JJG.3 


From  Drawings  of  Baldwin  Patent  No.  159,244 


Baldwin  Madiinc 


Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art  85 


wheels  N,  in  the  patent  drawings,  which  serve  the 
purpose  of  recording  the  named  functions  of  cal- 
culation. 

The  means  by  which  the  type  wheels  of  the 
upper  row  are  turned  through  the  varying  degrees 
of  rotation  they  receive  to  register  the  results  of 
calculation,  consists  of  a  crank-driven,  revolvable 
drum,  marked  E,  which  is  provided  with  several 
denominational  series  of  projectable  gear  teeth  h, 
which  may  be  made  to  protrude  through  the  drum 
by  operation  of  the  digital  setting-knobs  g,  situ- 
ated on  the  outside  of  the  drum. 

These  knobs,  as  shown  in  the  patent  drawings, 
are  fast  to  radial  arms,  each  of  which  serves  as 
one  of  three  spokes  of  a  half-wheel  device,  operat- 
ing inside  the  drum  and  pivoted  on  the  inner  hub 
of  the  drum. 

These  half  wheels  marked  F,  in  the  drawings, 
by  means  of  their  cam  faces  h^  serve  to  force  the 
gear  teeth  out  through  the  face  of  the  drum,  or 
let  them  recede  under  the  action  of  their  springs 
as  the  knobs  g,  are  operated  forward  and  back  in 
the  slots  X,  of  the  drum  provided  for  the  purpose. 

As  will  be  noted  from  the  photographic  repro- 
duction of  the  machine,  these  slots  are  notched 
to  allow  the  arms  extending  through  them  to  be 
locked  in  nine  different  radial  positions,  and  that 
each  of  these  positions  are  marked  progressively 
from  0  to  9. 

This  arrangement  allows  the  operator  to  set  up 
numbers  in  the  different  orders  by  springing  the 
setting-knobs  g  to  the  left  and  pulling  them  for- 
ward to  the  number  desired,  where  it  will  become 
locked  in  the  notch  when  released.  This  action 
will  have  forced  out  as  many  gear  teeth  in  each 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


order  as  have  been  set  up  by  the  knobs  g  in  their 
respective  orders. 

The  lateral  positions  of  the  projectable  gear- 
teeth  correspond  to  the  spacing  of  the  type- 
wheels,  and  an  intermediate  gear  G,  meshing  with 
each  type,  or  register  wheel,  is  loosely  mounted 
on  the  shaft  H,  interposed  between  the  said  wheels 
and  the  actuating  drum  E,  so  that  when  the  drum 
is  revolved  by  the  crank  provided  for  that  purpose, 
the  gear-teeth  protruding  from  the  drum  will 
engage  the  intermediate  gears  G,  and  turn  them 
and  their  type  or  register  wheels  as  many  of  their 
ten  points  of  rotation  as  have  been  set  up  in  their 
respective  orders  of  the  setting  devices  of  the 
drum. 

Revolving  the  drum  in  one  direction  adds,  while 
revolving  it  in  the  opposite  direction  subtracts, 
and  repeated  revolutions  in  either  direction  give 
respectively  the  multiple  forms  of  addition  or  sub- 
traction which  result  in  either  multiplication  or 
division,  as  the  case  may  be. 

The  actuating  drum  E,  is  provided  with  means 
by  which  it  may  be  shifted  to  the  left  to  furnish 
means  for  multiplying  by  more  than  one  factor 
and  to  simplify  the  process  of  division. 

The  means  for  the  carry  of  the  tens  consist  of 
a  series  of  teeth  i,  formed  by  the  bent  end  of  a 
pivoted  spring-pressed  lever  arm  which  is  pivoted 
to  the  inside  of  the  actuating  drum  with  the  tooth 
protruding  through  a  slot  in  the  drum,  so  arranged 
as  to  allow  motion  of  the  tooth  in  a  direction  paral- 
lel to  the  drum  axis. 

Normally  these  teeth  are  held  in  a  position  to 
escr.pe  engagement  with  the  intermediate  gears 
G,  but  provision  is  made  for  camming  the  teeth  i, 


From  Drawings  of  Pottin  Patent  No.  312,014 


Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art 


to  the  left  into  the  path  of  an  intermediate  gear 
of  one  order  as  the  type  or  register  wheel  of  the 
lower  order  passes  from  9  to  0. 

The  parts  which  perform  this  function  are  the 
cam  m,  located  on  the  left  side  of  each  wheel,  the 
plunger  M,  which  operates  in  the  fixed  shaft  H, 
and  which  has  a  T-shaped  head  that,  when  pro- 
jected into  the  path  of  the  carrying  teeth  i,  serve 
to  cam  them  sidewise  and  bring  about  the  engage- 
ment referred  to,  which  results  in  the  higher  type 
or  numeral  wheel  being  stepped  forward  one  space. 

The  cam-lugs  j  on  the  drum  serve  to  engage  and 
push  back  the  T  heads  of  the  cam  plungers  M, 
after  they  have  brought  about  the  one-step  move- 
ment of  the  higher  wheel. 

The  printing  device  consists  of  a  hand-manipu-  Baldwins  prim- 
lated  frame  pivoted  to  the  main  frame  of  the 
machine  by  the  shaft  t.  The  paper  is  supplied 
from  a  roll  about  the  shaft  t,  and  an  ink-ribbon  is 
fed  back  and  forth  from  the  rolls  u  and  u^  over 
bars  of  the  printing-frame  which  protrude  through 
slots  in  the  casing  and  act  as  platens  for  the  im- 
pression of  the  paper  and  ink-ribbon  against  the 
type. 

It  is  presumed  that  the  paper  was  torn  off  after 
a  record  was  printed  in  the  same  manner  as  in  the 
more  modern  machines. 


ing  mechanism 


The  Pottin  IVIachine 

Eight  years  after  the  Baldwin  patent  was  issued, 
a  Frenchman  named  Henry  Pottin,  residing  in 
Paris,  France,  invented  a  machine  for  recording 
cash  transactions,  which  he  patented  in  England 
in  1883  and  in  the  United  States  in  1885  (see  illus- 
tration on  opposite  page). 


90 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


First  key-set  crank- 
operated  machine 
and  first  attempt 
to  record  the  items 
in  addition 


The  form  and  design  of  the  machine,  as  will  be 
noted,  correspond  quite  favorably  with  the  scheme 
of  the  present-day  cash  register,  although  it  lacks 
the  later  refinement  that  has  made  the  cash  regis- 
ter acceptable  from  a  visible  point  of  view. 

The  Pottin  invention  is  named  here  as  the  first 
in  which  two  of  the  prime  principles  of  the  record- 
ing-adders of  today  are  disclosed;  one  is  the  de- 
pressable  key-set  feature  and  the  other  is  the 
recording  of  the  numerical  items.  The  Pottin 
machine  was  the  first  known  depressable  key-set 
crank-operated  machine  made  to  add  columns  of 
figures  and  the  first  machine  in  which  an  attempt 
was  made  to  print  the  numerical  items  as  they 
were  added. 

Turning  to  the  illustration  of  the  U.  S.  patent 
drawings  of  the  Pottin  machine,  the  reader  will 
note  that  there  are  four  large  wheels  shown, 
marked  B.  These  wheels  are  what  may  be  called 
the  type-wheels,  although  they  also  serve  as  indi- 
cator wheels  for  registering  cash  sales.  The  type 
figures  are  formed  by  a  series  of  needles  fixed  in 
the  face  of  the  wheels. 

The  means  employed  for  presenting  the  proper 
type  figure  for  printing  and  likewise  the  indica- 
tor figures  to  indicate  the  amount  set  up  in  each 
denominational  order  was  as  follows : 

Referring  to  Fig.  1,  it  will  be  noted  that  to  each 
type-wheel  is  geared  a  spring-actuated  segmental 
rack  marked  D,  which,  as  shown  in  the  drawing, 
is  in  contact  with  a  pin  marked  i,  which  protrudes 
from  the  side  of  the  depressed  number  (9)  key. 

The  norm.al  position  of  the  rack  D,  is  indicated 
in  dotted  lines  showing  the  next  higher  sector 
which  has  not  been  displaced  by  key  depression. 


Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art 


91 


Each  key,  as  will  be  noted  from  Fig.  7,  is  pro-     Description  of 


vided  with  one  of  the  pins  i,  which  is  nonnally  out 
of  the  path  of  the  lug  j,  as  the  racks  D,  drop  for- 
ward ;  but  when  any  key  is  depressed  the  pin  is 
presented  in  the  path  of  the  lug  j,  and  stops  fur- 
ther forward  action  of  the  rack. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  arrangement  of  the 
keys  is  such  as  will  allow  progressively  varying 
degrees  of  action  to  the  segmental  racks  D.  This 
variation,  combined  with  the  geared  relation  of 
the  type-wheels  and  racks  is  equivalent  to  a  tenth 
of  a  rotation  of  the  type-wheel  for  each  succes- 
sive key  in  the  order  of  their  arrangement  from  1 
to  9. 

The  means  provided  for  holding  the  segmental 
racks  D,  at  normal,  also  serves  to  hold  a  key  of  the 
same  order  depressed,  and  consists  of  a  pivoted 
spring-pressed  latch-frame  marked  E  (see  Figs. 
7  and  8). 

With  such  a  combination,  the  depression  of  keys 
in  the  several  orders  will  unlatch  the  segmental 
racks,  and  the  racks,  through  the  tension  of  their 
actuating  springs,  will  turn  the  wheels  and  present 
a  type  corresponding  to  the  numerical  value  of 
each  key  depressed. 

A  hand  lever,  marked  R,  located  on  left  side  of 
the  machine  provides  power  for  printing  the  items. 
Another  hand  lever,  marked  J,  serves  to  restore 
the  segmental  racks,  type-wheels  and  the  keys  to 
normal,  and  through  the  co-operation  of  the  lever 
R,  adds  the  items  to  the  totalizer  numeral  wheels, 
which  are  shown  in  Fig.  1  as  the  numbered  wheels 
marked  v. 


PoUin  machine 


92  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


The  paper  is  supplied  from  a  roll  mounted  on  a 
hinged  platen  frame  P\  supported  in  its  normal 
position  by  a  spring  P^.  The  paper  passes  under 
the  roller  P,  which  acts  as  a  platen  for  the  impres- 
sion of  the  type.  A  shaft  Q,  passing  under  the 
frame  PS  is  fast  and  rigidly  connected  on  the  left- 
hand  side  of  the  machine  with  the  hand  lever  R, 
and  acts  as  a  pivot  for  the  said  lever  and  by  means 
of  lateral  projections  q,  serves  when  the  lever  R  is 
operated  to  engage  the  frame  P\  and  depresses  it 
until  the  needle  types  have  pricked  the  numerical 
items  through  the  paper. 

A  slit  in  the  casing  provided  means  for  printing 
the  item  on  a  separate  piece  of  paper  or  bill. 

Although  there  is  no  means  shown  by  which  the 
paper  is  fed  after  an  item  is  printed,  it  is  claimed 
in  the  specification  that  the  well-known  means  for 
such  feeding  may  be  employed.  The  actuating 
lever  J  referred  to,  is  connected  by  a  ratchet  and 
geared  action  with  the  shaft  F*,  so  that  a  revolu- 
tion is  given  the  said  shaft  each  time  the  lever  is 
operated. 

To  the  shaft  F,  (see  Fig.  1)  is  attached  a  series 
of  arms  H,  one  for  each  order,  which,  as  the  shaft 
revolves  in  the  direction  of  the  arrow,  engages  a 
lug  marked  I,  on  the  segmental  racks  D,  thus  rock- 
ing the  segments  back  to  normal,  turning  the  type- 
wheels  with  them. 

The  return  of  the  segment  racks  D,  cause  the 
back  of  the  latch  tooth  f,  (see  Fig.  8)  to  engage 
the  latch  tooth  f,  of  the  latch  bar  E,  camming  it 
out  of  engagement  with  the  keys  so  that  any  key 
that  has  been  set  will  return  by  means  of  its  own 
spring. 

*Note:  All  the  drawings  of  the  Pottin  patent  are  not  shown  here. 


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From  Drawings  of  Burroughs  Patent  No.  388,118 


Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art  95 


The  total  or  accumulator  numeral  wheels  are 
connectable  with  the  type  or  indicating  wheels  B, 
by  an  engaging  and  disengaging  gear  motion  set 
up  by  the  combined  action  of  the  hand  levers  R 
and  J,  which  first  cause  such  gear  engagement, 
and  then,  through  the  return  of  the  type  wheels 
to  zero,  turn  the  accumulator  wheels,  thus  trans- 
ferring the  amount  of  the  item  set  upon  the  type 
wheels  to  the  accumulator  wheels. 

The  specification  claims  the  machine  is  intended 
for  use  by  cashiers,  bank-tellers,  and  others,  to 
record  receipts  or  disbursements. 

It  is  also  claimed  in  the  specification  that  instead 
of  the  needle  type  ordinary  type  may  be  used  in 
combination  with  an  inking  ribbon  if  so  desired. 

One  of  the  next  attempts  to  produce  a  recording-    Early  efforts  of 
adder  was  made  by  Wm.  S.  Burroughs,  whose     Wm.S.Burroa,jhs 
name  sixteen  years  later  was  used  to  rename  the  > 
American  Arithmometer  Co.,  now  known  as  the 
Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Co. 

The  first  patent  issued  to  Burroughs,  No.  388116, 
under  date  of  August  21,  1888,  like  the  machine  of 
Barbour  and  Baldwin,  was  designed  to  record  only 
the  final  result  of  calculation. 

On  the  same  date,  but  of  later  application,  an- 
other patent.  No.  388118,  was  issued  to  Burroughs 
which  claimed  to  combine  the  recording  of  the 
numerical  items  and  the  recording  of  the  totals  in 
one  machine.  Some  of  the  drawings  of  this  patent 
have  been  reproduced.   (See  opposite  page.) 

Machine  of  Early  Burroughs  Patent 
Referring  to  the  drawings  of  the  Burroughs 
patent,  it  will  be  noted,  that  in  outward  form, 
the  machine  is  similar  to  the  Burroughs  machine 


Will.  S.  Burroughs 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


of  today.    To  give  a  detailed  description  of  the 
construction  of  the  machine  of  this  Burroughs 
patent  would  make  tedious  reading  and  take  un- 
necessary space. 
General  scheme         The  principle  involved  in  the  mechanism  for 
of  Burroughs'      recording  the  items  is  very  similar  to  that  of  the 
jirf  inven  ions      pQ^-^jj^  invention ;  the  setting  of  the  type  wheels 
being  effected  as  in  the  Pottin  machine  by  means 
of  segment  gears  which  the  depression  of  the  keys 
serves  to  unlatch,  and  acts  to  gauge  the  additive 
degree  of  their  movement. 
r^     Burroughs  used  the  inking  form  of  type  pro- 
!    posed  as  an  alternative  by  Pottin  in  his  patent 
specification  instead  of  the  needles  shown  in  the 
Pottin  drawings. 

In  the  Burroughs  patent,  as  in  the  Pottin,  it  will 
be  noted  that  there  are  two  sets  of  wheels  bearing 
figures,  one  set  of  which,  marked  J,  situated  at 
the  rear,  are  the  type-wheels,  and  the  other  set, 
marked  A,  at  the  front  of  the  machine,  are  for  the 
accumulation  of  the  totals. 

For  each  denominational  order  of  the  type  and 
total  wheels,  there  is  provided  an  actuating  seg- 
miental  gear,  consisting  of  a  two-armed  segmental 
lever  pivoted  to  the  shaft  C,  and  having  the  gear 
teeth  of  its  rear  arm  constantly  in  mesh  with  the 
pinion  gear  of  the  type-wheel  J,  and  the  gear  teeth 
of  the  forward  arm  normally  presented  to,  but  out 
of  mesh  with  the  pinion  gear  of  its  total  wheel  A. 

Each  of  these  denominational  actuators  or  seg- 
ment gears  is  provided  with  a  stop  projection  X-, 
at  the  top  end  of  its  forward  gear-rack,  which  serves 
as  a  means  for  interrupting  the  downward  move- 
ment of  that  end  of  the  segment  lever,  and  thus 
controls  its  movement  as  a  denominational 
actuator. 


Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art  97 


It  will  be  noted  that  instead  of  the  key-stems 
acting  directly  as  a  stop  for  the  denominational 
actuators,  as  in  the  Pottin  invention,  Burroughs 
used  a  bell  crank  type  of  key  lever  and  the  stop- 
wire  C^  as  an  intermediate  means,  and  in  this  man- 
ner produced  a  flat  keyboard  more  practical  for 
key  manipulation. 

The  stop-wires  C\  as  will  be  noted,  are  arranged     Hncj  description 
to  slide  in  slots  of  the  framework,  and  while  nor-     fjiy  Burroughs 
mally  not  presented  in  the  path  of  the  stop-pro-     patents 
jection  X-,  of  the  denominational  actuators,  it  may 
be  observed  that  by  the  depression  of  the  proper 
key  any  one  of  them  may  be  drawn  rearward  and 
into  the  path  of  the  stop  projection  X-,  of  its  re- 
lated actuator,  and  thus  serve  as  a  means  to  inter- 
cept the  downward  action  of  the  actuator. 

The  denominational  actuators  in  the  Burroughs 
machine  were  not  provided  with  spring  tension 
that  would  cause  them  to  act  as  soon  as  unlatched 
by  depression  of  the  keys  as  has  been  described  in 
relation  to  the  Pottin  invention. 

While  the  keys  in  the  Burroughs  machine,  as  in 
the  Pottin  invention,  served  also  to  unlatch  the 
denominational  actuators  in  their  respective 
orders,  no  movement  of  the  said  actuators  or  type- 
v/heels  took  place  until  a  secondary  action  was  per- 
formed. 

The  secondary  action,  or  the  operation  of  the 
hand  lever,  marked  C ',  attached  to  the  shaft  C,  on 
its  initial  or  forward  stroke  dragged  the  denomi- 
national actuators  down  by  means  of  friction  and 
thus  set  the  type-wheels,  and  by  means  claimed  in 
the  specification,  brought  about  the  type  impres- 
sion to  print  the  result  of  the  key-setting  or  the 
item  so  set. 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


The  backward  or  rear  stroke  of  the  hand  lever 
caused  the  accumulator  or  total  numeral  wheels  to 
be  engaged  and  the  item  to  be  added  to  them. 

From  this  single  lever  action  it  will  be  noted 
that  there  is  an  imiorovement  shown  over  and 
above  the  Pottin  invention  in  the  fact  that  but  one 
lever  motion  is  required;  Pottin  having  provided 
two  levers  so  that  in  the  event  of  error  the  opera- 
tion of  one  lever  would  reset  the  machine  without 
performing  any  addition  or  printing. 

In  the  Burroughs  invention,  the  motion  of  de- 
nominational actuators  and  their  type-wheels  not 
being  effected  through  depression  of  keys,  as  in 
the  Pottin  machine,  allowed  any  error  in  the  set- 
ting up  of  an  item  to  be  corrected  by  the  resetting 
of  the  keys  and  relatching  of  the  gears,  which  it 
is  claimed  was  provided  for  by  operation  of  the 
lever  marked  B^  (Fig.  1  of  the  drawings). 

As  a  means  of  supplying  power  to  his  denom- 
inational actuators.  Burroughs  provided  what  may 
be  called  a  universal  actuator  common  to  all  orders, 
composed  of  a  rock  frame  (arms  D-,  loose  on  each 
end  of  actuating  shaft  C,  and  having  their  out- 
ward ends  rigidly  connected  by  the  bar  a'O  and 
the  arms  E,  fixed  to  each  end  of  the  shaft  C. 

Projecting  from  the  inside  of  each  of  the  arms 
E,  are  two  lugs,  b'  and  b',  which  contact  with  the 
arms  D-  of  the  rock  frame  as  the  shaft  C  is  rocked 
back  and  forth  by  its  hand  crank  C\  and  thus 
lower  and  raise  the  rock-frame. 

The  means  employed  to  transmit  the  reciprocat- 
ing action  of  the  universal  actuator  to  such  de- 
nominational actuators  as  may  be  unlatched  by 
key  depression,  consists  of  a  series  of  spring- 
pressed  arc-shaped  levers  DS  pivoted  to  the  rock- 


Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art  99 


frame  bar  a^,  which  bear  against  a  pin  b-  fixed  in 
the  front  arm  of  the  denominational  actuators. 

Each  of  the  levers  D^  is  provided  with  a  notch 
y,  which  serves  on  the  downward  action  of  the 
rock-frame  to  engage  the  pins  b-,  of  the  denomi- 
national actuators  and  draw  down  with  them  such 
actuators  as  have  been  unlatched  by  key  depres- 
sion and  to  pass  over  the  pins  of  such  actuators 
as  have  not  been  unlatched. 

When  in  the  course  of  such  downward  move- 
ment the  denominational  actuators  are  intercepted 
by  the  stop-wires  CS  the  yielding  spring  pressure 
of  the  levers  D%  allow  the  notches  y,  to  slip  over  the 
pins  b-,  and  leave  the  denominational  actuators 
and  their  type-wheels  set  for  recording  the  item 
thus  set  up. 

The  means  provided  for  impression  of  the  type 
is  shown  in  other  drawings  of  a  patent  not  repro- 
duced here.  The  means  provided  consisted  of  a 
universal  platen,  which,  the  specification  states, 
serves  to  press  the  ink-ribbon  and  paper  against 
the  type  after  all  the  figures  of  each  item  were  set. 

\Vhile  Barbour,  Baldwin  and  Pottin  all  used  the 
universal  platen  to  print  the  collective  setting  of 
type  represented  in  the  items  or  totals,  as  the  case 
may  be,  each  varied  somewhat  in  detail.  Baldwin 
used  a  toggle  to  press  the  platen  toward  the  type, 
while  Burroughs  used  a  spring  to  press  the  platen 
against  the  type  and  a  toggle  to  press  it  away 
from  the  type. 

Burroughs  claimed  to  have  combined  in  his  in- 
vention the  printing  of  the  totals,  with  the  print- 
ing of  the  items,  each  of  which  it  has  been  shown 
was  claimed  by  the  patentees  of  previous  inven- 


100  Oeigin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


tions  but  had  not  been  combined  in  one  machine 
prior  to  the  Burroughs  attempt. 

The  process  for  recording  these  totals  in  the 
Burroughs  patent  consisted  of  utilizing  the  action 
of  the  total  wheels  during  their  resetting  or  zero- 
izing movement  to  gauge  the  setting  of  the  type- 
wheels. 

The  specification  shows  that,  during  the  down- 
ward motion  or  setting  of  the  denominational 
actuators,  as  they  set  the  type  wheels,  the  numeral 
wheels  are  out  of  gear  and  receive  no  motion 
therefrom;  and  that  after  the  recording  of  each 
item  and  during  the  return  motion  of  denomina- 
tional actuators,  the  numeral  or  total  wheels  are 
revolved  forward  in  their  accumulative  action  of 
adding  the  items  and  thus  registering  the  total. 

Provision  is  made,  however,  when  it  is  desired 
to  print  the  totals,  to  cause  the  totalizing  wheels 
to  enmesh  with  the  denominational  actuators  on 
their  downward  or  setting  movement,  and  for  the 
unlatching  of  all  the  racks  so  that  by  operating 
the  hand  lever  C'%  the  downward  action  of  the 
racks  will  reverse  the  action  of  the  totalizing 
wheels,  which  will  revolve  backward  until  the 
zeros  show  at  the  visible  reading  point,  where  they 
will  be  arrested  by  stops  provided  for  that  pur- 
pose. By  this  method  the  forward  rotation  accu- 
mulated on  each  wheel  will,  through  the  reverse 
action  of  zeroizing,  give  a  like  degree  of  action  to 
the  type-wheels  through  the  denominational  actu- 
ators. Thus  the  registration  of  the  total  wheels, 
it  is  claimed,  will  be  transferred  to  the  type-wheels 
and  the  record  printed  thereof  as  a  footing  to  the 
column  of  numerical  items  that  have  been  added. 


Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art 

» ! • <  »  '  > 


101 


»  ,   1 — »_» 


To  pass  judgment  on  the  recording  machines  of 
the  patents  that  have  been  described,  from  the 
invention  of  Barbour  to  that  of  Burroughs,  de- 
mands consideration,  first,  as  to  whether  in  any 
of  the  machines  of  these  patents  the  primary  fea- 
tures of  legible  recording  were  present. 

The  question  as  to  operativeness  respecting  other 
features  is  of  no  consideration  until  it  is  proven 
that  the  means  disclosed  for  recording  was  prac- 
tical. As  non-recording  adding  or  calculating  ma- 
chines they  were  not  of  a  type  that  could  compete 
with  the  more  speedy  key-driven  machines  dealt 
with  in  the  preceding  chapters ;  therefore  without 
the  capacity  for  legible  recording,  these  patents 
must  stand  as  representing  a  nonentity  or  as  statu- 
tory evidence  of  the  ineffective  efforts  of  those 
who  conceived  the  scheme  of  their  makeup  and 
attempted  to  produce  a  recording-adding  machine. 

Without  the  capacity  for  legible  recording,  of 
what  avail  is  it  that  the  machine  of  one  of  these 
patents  should  disclose  advantages  over  another? 
It  may  be  conceded  that  there  are  features  set 
forth  in  the  Pottin  and  Burroughs  patents  that  if 
operatively  combined  with  legible  recording  would 
disclose  quite  an  advanced  state  of  the  Art  at  the 
time  they  were  patented.  But  credit  for  such  an 
operative  combination  cannot  be  given  until  it 
exists. 

There  is  no  desire  to  question  the  ingenuity  dis- 
played by  any  of  these  inventors,  but  in  seeking 
the  first  practical  recording-adding  or  calculating 
machine  we  must  first  find  an  operative  machine 
of  that  type;  one  which  will  record  in  a  practical 
and  legible  manner  regardless  of  its  other  quali- 
fications. 


.1//  early  arith- 
metical printing 
devices 
impractical 


102         '   '     ^      ^^^  ^  ORIGIN  "©F  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


_fe_f r-^- 


Praciical  method  The  fact  that  the  fundamental  principle  used  for 
^""^  'Tw/a/i  the  impression  of  the  type  in  the  practical  recorder 
of  today  is  not  displayed  in  any  of  these  inventions, 
raises  the  question  as  to  the  effective  operative- 
ness  of  the  printing  scheme  disclosed  in  the  pat- 
ents of  these  early  machines. 

In  each  of  the  four  alleged  recording-adding  ma- 
chine patents  described,  it  will  be  noted  that  the 
means  employed  for  printing  was  that  of  pressing 
the  paper  against  the  group  of  type  by  means  of  a 
universal  platen  or  plate. 

While  with  such  a  combination  it  may  be  pos- 
sible to  provide  a  set  pressure  great  enough  to 
legibly  print  a  numerical  item  or  total  having  eight 
to  ten  figures  through  an  ink  ribbon,  it  would  not 
be  practical  to  use  the  same  pressure  to  print  a 
single-digit  figure,  as  it  would  cause  the  type  to 
break  through  the  paper.  And  yet  in  the  numeri- 
cal items  and  totals  that  have  to  be  recorded  in 
machines  of  the  class  under  consideration,  such 
wide  variation  is  constantly  encountered. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  typewriter  and  the 
legible  printing  it  produces.  But  suppose  instead 
of  printing  each  letter  separately  the  whole  word 
should  be  printed  at  once  by  a  single-key  depres- 
sion, then,  of  course,  single-letter  words,  such  as 
the  article  "a"  or  the  pronoun  "I"  would  also  have  to 
be  printed  by  a  single-key  depression.  In  this  sup- 
position we  find  a  parallel  of  the  requirements  oi 
a  recording-adding  machine. 

If  it  were  possible  to  so  increase  the  leverage  of 
the  typewriter  keys  enough  to  cause  a  word  of  ten 
letters  to  be  printed  as  legibly  as  a  single  letter  is 
now  printed,  ten  times  the  power  would  have  to 
be  delivered  at  the  type-head.    Then  think  what 


# 


^s%    Jl 

i 

Drawings  of  Ludluin  Patent  No.  384,373 


Early  Efforts  ix  the  Recording  Machine  Art 


105 


would  happen  with  that  same  amount  of  power 
apphed  to  print  the  letter  "a,"  or  letter  "I."  You 
would  not  question  that  under  such  conditions  the 
type  would  break  a  hole  in  the  paper.  And  yet  the 
patentees  of  the  said  described  inventions  wanted 
the  public  to  believe  that  their  inventions  were 
operative.  But  to  be  operative  as  recording-adding 
machines,  they  must  meet  such  variable  conditions 
as  described. 

It  is  useless  to  believe  that  a  variation  of  from 
one  to  ten  or  more  type  could  be  printed  by  a  set 
amount  of  pressure  through  an  ink-ribbon  and  be 
legible  under  all  circumstances. 

While  the  needle-type  of  Pottin  may  have  printed 
the  items  legibly  enough  for  a  cash-register,  it 
would  not  serve  the  purpose  of  a  record  for  uni- 
versal use.  The  use  of  regular  type  and  the  inking 
ribbon  proposed  in  his  specification  would  bring  it 
within  the  inoperative  features  named. 

The  Ludlum  Machine 

In  1888,  about  two  months  prior  to  the  issue  of 
the  Burroughs  recording  machine  patent  just  re- 
ferred to,  a  patent  was  issued  to  A.  C.  Ludlum  for 
an  adding  and  writing-machine.  (See  illustration 
on  opposite  page.) 

It  will  be  noted  by  reference  to  the  drawings 
that  the  scheme  is  that  of  a  typewriter  with  an 
adding  mechanism  attached. 

The  details  of  the  typewriter  may  be  omitted,  as 
most  of  us  are  familiar  with  typewriters.  A  fea- 
ture that  differed  from  the  regular  typewriter, 
however,  was  that  the  machine  printed  figures  only 
and  the  carriage  operated  in  the  opposite  direction, 
thus  printing  from  right  to  left  instead  of  left  to 
right. 


Inoperative 
features  of  early 
recording 
mechanism 


Adding  mechan- 
ism attached  to 
typewriter 


106  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Description  of  A  series  of  numeral  wheels  and  their  devices  for 
machine  the  transfer  of  the  tens,  designed  to  register  the 
totals,  are  shown  mounted  in  a  shiftable  frame 
connected  with  the  bar  marked  F,  with  the  type- 
writer carriage,  and  is  claimed  to  move  therewith. 

Each  numeral  wheel  is  provided  with  a  gear 
marked  G,  which,  as  the  carriage  moves  after 
writing  or  printing  each  figure  of  the  item,  is  sup- 
posed to  slide  into  mesh  one  at  a  time  with  an  adding 
gear  marked  H,  the  engagement  taking  place  from 
right  to  left.  Or  beginning  with  the  right  or  units 
numeral  wheel  a  higher  order  numeral  wheel  gear 
is  supposed  to  shift  through  movement  of  the  car- 
riage into  engagement  with  the  adding  gear  H, 
each  time  a  key  is  depressed. 

The  adding  gear  H,  is  supposed  to  receive  vary- 
ing degrees  of  rotation  from  the  keys  according  to 
their  numerical  marking  and  to  rotate  the  num- 
eral wheel  with  which  it  happens  to  be  engaged,  a 
corresponding  number  of  its  ten  marked  points  "of 
registration. 

Between  the  adding  gear  H,  and  the  keys  which 
act  to  drive  it,  is  a  ratchet  and  gear  device  consist- 
ing of  the  ratchet  pawl  pivoted  to  the  adding  gear 
H,  the  ratchet  F%  and  its  pinion  gear,  the  segment 
gear  P  fast  to  the  rock  shaft  I,  the  nine  arms  P  fast 
to  the  rock  shaft  and  the  pins  P,  which  are  arranged 
in  the  key  levers  to  contact  with  and  depress  the 
arms  I^  of  the  rock  shaft  varying  distances,  accord- 
ing to  the  value  of  the  key  depressed.  That  is,  sup- 
posing that  the  full  throw  of  the  key-lever  was 
required  to  actuate  the  rock  shaft  with  its  gear 
and  ratchet  connection  to  give  nine-tenths  of  a 
revolution  to  the  numeral  wheel  in  adding  the 
digit  nine,  the  pin  P  in  the  (9)  key-lever  would  in 


Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art  107 


that  case  be  in  contact  with  its  ami  I',  of  the  rock 
shaft,  but  the  pins  I-,  of  each  of  the  other  key 
levers  would  be  arranged  to  allow  lost  motion  be- 
fore the  pin  should  engage  its  arm  I^  of  the  rock 
shaft,  in  accordance  with  the  difference  of  their 
adding  value. 

According  to  the  specification,  Ludlum  evidently 
had  the  idea  that  he  could  stop  the  adding  gear  H, 
while  under  the  high  rate  of  speed  it  would  receive 
from  a  quick  depression  of  a  key,  by  jabbing  the 
detent  J  between  the  fine  spacing  of  the  gear  teeth 
shown  in  his  drawing.  But  to  those  familiar  with 
the  possibility  of  such  stop  devices,  its  inoperative- 
ness will  be  obvious;  not  that  the  principle  pro- 
perly applied  would  not  work,  for  its  application 
by  Felt  prior  to  that  of  Ludlum  proved  the  possi- 
bilities of  this  method  of  gauging  additive  actua- 
tion. 

The  detent  lever  J,  as  shown  in  the  drawings,  is 
operated  by  the  hinged  plate  D,  through  action  of 
the  key  levers,  as  any  one  of  them  are  depressed. 

Under  depression  of  a  key,  the  hinged  plate  D, 
being  carried  down  with  it,  engages  the  arm  J^  of 
the  detent  and  throws  the  tooth  at  its  upper  end 
into  the  teeth  of  the  gear  H. 

The  timing  of  the  entry  of  the  tooth  of  the  de- 
tent is  supposed  to  be  gauged  to  enter  the  right 
tooth,  but  as  the  action  of  these  parts  is  fast, 
slow  or  medium  at  the  will  of  the  operator,  con- 
siderable time  must  be  allowed  for  variation  in  the 
entry  of  the  detent  tooth,  which  requires  space,  as 
certain  parts  will  fly  ahead  under  the  sudden  im- 
pact they  may  receive  from  a  quick  stroke,  where 
they  would  not  under  a  slow  stroke,  but  no  allow- 
ance was  provided  for  such  contingency. 


108  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


The  means  provided  for  the  carry  of  the  tens 
consist  of  the  gears  G'',  meshing  with  the  numeral 
wheel  gears  and  the  single  gear  tooth  g^,  attached 
to  it,  which,  at  each  revolution  of  the  lower  wheel. 
as  it  passes  from  9  to  0,  engages  the  gear  of  the 
numeral  wheel  of  higher  denomination  and  was 
supposed  to  turn  the  higher  gear  one-tenth  of  a 
revolution,  thus  registering  one  greater. 

On  account  of  the  Gears  G^,  of  one  order  and  the 
gear  tooth  g^,  of  another  order  operating  on  the 
same  numeral  wheel  gear,  the  transfer  gears  are 
arranged  alternately  on  separate  shafts,  one  at  the 
side  and  one  below  the  numeral  wheels. 
Ludlum  machine  The  mechanical  scheme  disclosed  in  the  Lud- 
inoperative  lum  patent,  to  the  unsophisticated  may  seem  to 
be  operative.  But  to  those  familiar  with  the  Art  of 
key-driven  adding  mechanism  it  will  at  once  be 
obvious  that  even  if  the  typewriter  feature  was 
constructed  properly  the  possibility  of  correctly 
adding  the  items  as  they  were  printed  was  abso- 
lutely impossible. 

Laying  aside  several  other  features  of  inopera- 
tiveness, obvious  to  those  who  know  such  mechan- 
ism, the  reader,  although  not  versed  in  the  Art  of 
key-driven  adding  mechanism,  will  observe  from 
the  preceding  chapter,  that  the  means  provided  for 
transferring  the  tens  without  any  control  for  the 
numeral  wheels  against  over-rotation,  would  make 
correct  addition  impossible. 

The  drawings  and  specification  of  the  Ludlum 
patent  disclose  a  mere  dream  and  show  that  they 
were  not  copied  from  the  make-up  of  an  operative 
machine. 

It  was  a  daring  scheme  and  one  that  none  but  a 
dreamer   would    undertake    to    construct   in    the 


Eaely  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art  109 


method  shown.  There  have  in  later  years  been 
some  successful  ten-key  recording  machines  made 
and  sold,  but  they  were  of  a  very  different  design 
and  principle. 

There  have  also  been  several  adding  attach- 
ments made  and  sold  that  could  be  adjusted  to  a 
regular  commercial  typewriter  that  are  claimed  to 
be  dependable,  but  none  of  these  machines  were 
early  enough  to  be  claimed  as  the  first  operative 
recording-adding  machine,  or  the  first  adding  ma- 
chine in  which  the  principle  used  for  the  legible 
recording  of  the  numerical  items  used  in  the  ma- 
chines of  today  may  be  found. 


First  Practical  Recorders 

THE  fact  that  Barbour,  Baldwin,  Pottin,  Lud- 
lum  and  Burroughs  attempted  to  produce  a 
recording-adding  machine  shows  that  as  far 
back  as  1872,  and  at  periods  down  to  1888,  there 
was  at  least  in  the  minds  of  these  men  a  concep- 
tion of  the  usefulness  of  such  a  machine,  and  the 
fact  that  there  were  five  with  the  same  thought  is 
fairly  good  evidence  of  the  need  for  a  machine  of 
this  class. 

In  some  of  the  human-interest  articles  issued 
through  the  advertising  department  of  the  Bur- 
roughs Adding  Machine  Co.  it  is  stated  that  Wm. 
Seward  Burroughs  was  a  bank  clerk  prior  to  his 
efforts  at  adding-machine  construction.  It  is  con- 
ceivable, therefore,  that  his  first  efforts  at  adding- 
machine  invention  should  be  directed  toward  the 
production  of  a  machine  that  would  be  of  service 
in  the  bank  for  the  bringing  together  of  the  loose 
items  of  account  that  are  to  be  found  in  the  form 
of  checks,  drafts,  and  the  like,  by  printing  a  record 
of  the  items  and  their  totals  during  the  process  of 
adding  them  together. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  a  manufac- 
turer of  a  successful  calculating  machine  should, 
through  his  contact  with  the  trade,  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  there  was  use  for  a  machine  of  this 
class  in  the  banks.  As  proof  of  this,  we  find  that 
an  application  for  a  recording-adding  machine 
111 


Burroughs  a 
bank  clerk 


Fell  interested  in 
recorder  Art 


tM    '(W,    (^    (w;   (»)    ^     (»   ^t 


S3  (»  (5>.®  (g)  ®  $1  ^  ^V^ 


From  DraAvings  of  Felt  Patent  No.  405,024 


First  Practical  Recorders  113 


patent  was  filed  January  19,  1888,  by  D.  E.  Felt, 
which  was  allowed  and  issued  June  11,  1889. 

Some  of  the  drawings  of  this  patent  will  be     i- til's  firsi  re- 
found   reproduced    on    the    opposite   page,    from     ""-ding  machine 
which  the  reader  will  note  that  Felt  combined  his 
scheme  for  recording  with  the  mechanism  of  the 
machine  he  was  then  manufacturing  and  selling 
under  the  trade  name  of  "Comptometer." 

In  this  patent  is  shown  the  first  application  of 
the  type  sector  combined  with  the  individual  type 
impression  for  printing  the  figures  of  the  items  as 
they  were  added,  thus  giving  equal  impression, 
whether  there  were  one  or  a  dozen  figures  in  the 
item  or  total  to  be  printed. 

'WTiile  the  average  mechanical  engineer  would  not 
at  a  glance  recognize  any  great  advantage  in  plac- 
ing the  type  figures  directly  on  the  sector  instead 
of  using  the  type-wheel  and  segment  gear  to  drive 
it,  as  shown  in  two  of  the  previously  described 
patents,  there  is  plenty  of  evidence  of  its  advan- 
tage in  the  fact  that  all  the  later  successful  in- 
ventors have  followed  the  Felt  scheme.  It  provided 
more  simple  construction  for  the  narrow  space  these 
parts  must  occupy  for  practical  linear  spacing. 

As  the  adding  mechanism  of  this  machine  corres-     Fell  recording 
ponds  to  that  of  the  Felt  patent  371,496,  previ- 


inechanism  com' 
bined  with  his 


ously  described  in  the  preceding  chapter,  it  is  not  calculating 
necessary  to  duplicate  the  description  here.  Suflfice  "^"'^  '"^ 
it  to  say,  that  by  the  depression  of  a  key  in  any 
order,  the  value  of  that  key  is  added  to  the  numeral 
wheel  of  that  order,  and  if  the  figure  added  is 
great  enough  when  added  to  that  previously  regis- 
tered on  the  wheel,  a  ten  will  be  transferred  to 
the  higher  wheel  by  a  carrying  mechanism  spe- 
cially provided   to  allow   the   said   higher  wheel 


114  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


being  in  turn  operated  by  an  ordinal  series  of  keys, 
thus  providing  the  means  whereby  a  series  of  de- 
nominational orders  of  key-driven  adding  mechan- 
ism may  be  interoperative. 
Description  of  In  Fig.  2  of  the  drawings  is  shown  the  result  of 
^^recordfr  striking  the  (8)  key,  which  may  be  considered 
illustrative  of  such  action  in  any  order,  whether 
units,  tens,  hundreds,  thousands,  etc. 

The  depression  of  the  (8)  key  is  shown  to 
have  carried  the  lever  D  down  eight  of  its  nine 
additive  points  of  movement,  causing  the  plunger 
15,  bearing  against  its  upper  edge,  to  drop  with  it 
under  the  action  of  the  plunger  spring  17. 

To  the  upper  end  of  this  plunger,  is  pivotally 
attached  an  arm  of  the  type  sector  U,  which  is  in 
turn  pivoted  to  the  rod  y,  and  by  the  lowering  of 
the  plunger  15,  is  rocked  on  its  pivot,  raising  the 
type-head  until  the  number  (8)  type  is  presented 
opposite  the  printing  bar  or  platen  T,  which  is 
hung  on  the  pivot  arms  T\  so  that  it  may  be  swung 
forward  and  backward. 

An  ink-ribbon  w,  and  its  shifting  mechanism  is 
provided,  as  shown  in  Fig.  1 ;  the  paper  v,  is  sup- 
plied in  ribbon  form  from  a  roll  and  passes  between 
the  ink-ribbon  and  the  platen  T. 

Normally,  the  platen,  the  paper  and  the  ink-rib- 
bon are  in  a  retracted  position,  allowing  space  for 
the  type  sector  to  raise  and  lower  freely.  But,  as 
shown  in  Fig.  2,  a  type  impression  is  taking  place 
through  the  escapement  of  the  cam  wheel  RV 
which  is  located  back  of  the  platen,  and  which,  as 
^shown,  has  forced  the  cam  lever  1  forward,  press- 
ing the  spring  p,  against  the  platen  T,  thus  forcing 
the  paper  and  ribbon  forward  against  the  type, 
and  printing  the  figure  8. 


First  Practical  Recorders 


115 


After  the  cam-tooth  passes,  the  platen,  paper, 
ink-ribbon  and  spring  return  to  normal,  allowing 
the  type  sector  freedom  to  drop  when  the  key  is 
released. 

The  cam  wheel  R  is  propelled  by  a  spring  S  (Fig. 
1),  wound  by  the  hand-knob  S"',  and  is  released 
for  action  through  the  escapement  of  the  pallet 
wheel  R  attached  to  the  cam  wheel  R  and  the 
pallet  c. 

The  pallet  c  is  tripped  each  time  a  key  is  depressed 
and  is  shown  in  the  tripped  position  operated  by 
the  link  P  and  the  plural-armed  lever  0,  N,  which 
through  its  manifold  arms  N,  may  receive  action 
through  pins  a,  of  any  of  the  rock  bars  L,  as  they 
are  depressed  by  the  keys. 

The  cycle  of  action  described  takes  place  with 
every  key  depressed,  except  that  the  movement  of 
the  type  sector  varies  according  to  the  key 
depressed. 

As  the  printing  in  this  Felt  invention  was  by  in- 
dividualized type  impression,  legibility  of  recording 
as  well  as  accurate  addition  was  obtained.  Although 
this  patent  shows  that  Felt  had  produced  such  an 
operative  combination,  there  are  two  features  in 
this  patent  which  would  prevent  its  becoming  a 
marketable  machine. 

One  of  these  features  was  that  of  having  to  wind 
the  motor  spring  that  furnished  power  for  the 
type  impression.  The  other  feature  was  that  there 
was  no  provision  for  printing  the  ciphers.  Al- 
though the  ciphers  were  always  omitted  from  the 
keyboard  of  non-recording  adders,  as  they  could 
perform  no  function  in  addition  or  other  forms  of 
calculation,  they  could  not  without  inconvenience, 
be  eliminated  from  items  in  recording. 


First  individual- 
ized type 
impression  com- 
bined with 
printing  sector 


116 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


First  practical 

arithmetical 

recorder 


The  first  sale  of 
a  recording-add- 
ing machine  on 
record 


The  Second  Felt  Recorder 

While  the  last-described  Felt  patent  was  still 
pending,  Felt  improved  his  mechanism  for  record- 
ing, installing  new  features  and  eliminating  the 
objectionable  features  referred  to.  These  improve- 
ments were  of  such  a  satisfactory  nature  that  the 
Felt  &  Tarrant  Mfg.  Co.  made  twenty-five  record- 
ing-adders, with  the  new  features,  which  were  sold 
to  various  banks.  The  first  of  these  machines  was 
placed  on  trial  with  the  Merchants  &  Manufac- 
turers National  Bank  of  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  in  Decem- 
ber of  1889. 

Good  evidence  of  the  practical  features  of  this 
machine  was  set  forth  in  a  testimonial  given  at 
the  time  by  W.  A.  Shaw,  the  cashier  of  the  bank, 
after  it  had  been  given  a  six  months'  test.  This 
testimonial  is  extant  and  has  been  reproduced  on 
opposite  page. 

Records  show  that  the  bank  purchased  that 
"Comptograph,"  which  was  the  trade  name  given 
the  Felt  recording-adder,  and  used  it  until  1899,  at 
which  time  this  machine,  along  with  others  of  the 
same  make  purchased  at  a  later  date,  were  re- 
placed by  the  bank  with  "Comptographs  "  of  more 
modern  type. 

This  Felt  recording  machine  was  without  ques- 
tion the  first  practical  recording-adding  machine 
ever  sold  that  would  produce  legible  printed  records 
of  items  and  totals  under  the  variable  conditions 
that  have  to  be  met  in  such  a  class  of  recording. 

After  ten  years  of  service  this  first  practical 
recording-adding  machine  was  still  in  excellent 
condition,  and  in  1907  was  secured  by  the  Compto- 
graph  Co.  from  the  Bank  of  Pittsburgh,  into  which 
the  Merchants  &  Manufacturers  National  Bank, 


C&nWnn,t>a'  lit.^.*- 


'/;„^-.  ■/  /y/,,/:^  JLuy,.,/ 


y/^4f6iirM/(&J:^ 


f^-^:/^V<'^>C^a^-^^,:^^^t^//  -t^^ 


^  /If^O 


X^t  ^^^Z^   ^     i^^^L<^ 


ri:^'z:^  yl^i^gi.^  ^^     -** 


'P^?7>t^^^^^^^^^ 


Pui'cl 


F.-ll  Hcc-nlm-niKl  Listing  MacliiiH". 
iiHJ  I'scd  lor  'I'cii  \'ears  by  the  Merclinnts  A-  Maiiufacturer.s  B;i 


Mad, 


of  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

tlic  Xatiniial  Museiiin  at  Wasliingtou 


First  Practical  Recorders  119 


along  with  other  banks,  had  been  merged.  It  was 
finally  procured  by  Mr.  Felt  and  presented  to  the 
National  Museum  of  Washington,  D.  C,  where  it 
may  now  be  found  on  exhibit  along  with  other  in- 
ventions produced  by  Felt.  A  photo  reproduction 
of  this  machine  as  it  appeared  before  it  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Museum,  is  shown  on  the  opposite 
page. 

Like  the  machine  of  the  first  Felt  recorder  patent,     Features  of  first 
it  was  a  visible  printer,  each  figure  being  printed     P'^<^i^<^°^  ^^<^<'^der 
as  the  key  was  depressed,  the  paper  being  shifted 
by  the  hand  lever  shown  at  the  right. 

Unlike  the  former  machine,  however,  the  oper- 
ator was  not  called  upon  to  perform  the  extra 
operation  of  winding  up  a  spring  to  furnish  power 
for  the  printing. 

Power  for  the  printing  was  stored  by  the  action 
of  the  paper  shift-lever  and  an  entirely  different 
printing  device  was  used.  Provision  for  printing 
the  ciphers  automatically  was  also  a  feature  of 
this  machine.  It  was  not  necessary  to  operate 
cipher  keys,  and  there  were  no  such  keys  to  be 
operated.  To  print  an  item  having  ciphers  in  it 
required  only  the  omission  of  the  ciphers  as  the 
ciphers  would  automatically  fill  in. 

The  arrangement  of  the  paper  shows  a  good  im- 
provement over  the  first  machine,  as  it  was  more 
accessible,  being  fed  from  a  roll  at  the  top  down 
and  around  rolls  below  and  looped  back  so  that  it 
is  moved  upward  on  the  printed  surface,  where  it 
may  be  torn  off  as  desired. 

The  mechanism  of  this  machine  is  not  illustrated 
in  any  one  patent.  The  Felt  patents  Nos.  441,233 
and  465,255  cover  the  new  feature,  but  the  later 
patent.  No.  465,255,  shows  it  best.    Some  of  the 


120  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


drawings  of  the  last-named  patent  are  reproduced 
on  the  opposite  page  to  help  in  explanation  of  the 
details  of  the  new  features. 
Description  of  By  referring  to  the  drawings,  it  will  be  noted 
^^^^ 'recorder  ^hat  the  form  of  the  front  of  the  casing  differs 
from  the  machine.  Other  drawings  of  the  patent, 
not  shown  here,  disclose  features  of  still  later  in- 
vention than  were  in  the  machine  of  the  photo 
reproduction.  But  it  is  with  the  printing  device 
that  we  are  now  interested,  and  it  was  in  this 
patent  that  it  was  first  shown  in  the  form  used  in 
the  first  marketed  machine  referred  to. 

The  type  sector  marked  81  is  like  that  of  the 
first  patent,  except  that  it  is  provided  with  the 
ciphers  as  well  as  the  nine  digits. 

The  cipher  type  are  always  presented  for  print- 
ing when  the  sectors  are  resting  at  normal.  Thus, 
if  an  impression  can  be  made  without  depressing 
the  keys  in  that  order,  a  cipher  will  be  printed,  as 
will  be  shown  later. 

Back  of  the  paper  and  pivoted  to  the  rod  97,  are 
a  series  of  printing  hammers  87,  one  for  each  type 
sector. 

The  hammers  are  operated  by  the  spring  88,  and 
are  shown  retained  against  the  tension  of  their 
springs  by  the  trigger  latches  89. 

These  trigger  latches  are  pivoted  on  the  fixed 
shaft  171%  and  actuated  by  the  springs  92  to  cause 
their  engagement  with  the  notch  90  of  the  print- 
ing hammers. 

Each  of  the  trigger  latches  are  provided  with  a 
laterally  extending  lug  93,  formed  on  their  lower 
arm,  and  each  lug  overlaps  the  back  of  the  lower 
arm  of  the  adjacent  trigger  latch  to  the  right  of 
it,  so  that  if  any  trigger  latch  should  be  operated 


r 


(No  Model. 


12  Sheets— Sheet   8. 


D.  E.  FELT. 

RECORDING  COMPUTING  MACHINE. 

No.  465,255.  Patented  Dec.  15,  1891. 


From  Drawings  of  Felt  Patent  No.  40,";, 


122  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


so  as  to  extricate  it  from  the  notch  50  of  its  print- 
ing hammer,  its  overlapping  lug  93,  would  cause 
a  like  action  of  the  trigger  latch  to  the  right  of 
that,  and  so  on;  thus  releasing  all  the  trigger 
latches  to  the  right  of  the  latch  originally  released. 
Such  releasing,  of  course,  allowed  the  printing- 
hammers  87,  to  spring  forward  in  all  the  orders  so 
affected. 

The  long-stop  actuating  lever  marked  16,  corre- 
sponds with  the  lever  G  of  the  Felt  key-driven 
calculator  shown  in  a  preceding  chapter,  and  per- 
forms the  same  function  as  the  rock  bars  L  of  the 
first  Felt  recorder  patent.  These  stop  levers  16 
are  pivoted  at  17,  and  are  provided  with  rear  arms 
86,  extending  upward  with  their  ends  opposite  the 
lateral  extending  lug  93,  of  the  trigger  latch, 
which  corresponds  to  the  order  of  keys  which  the 
lever  16  serves. 

In  the  rear  upwardly-extending  end  of  each  of 
these  levers  16,  an  adjusting  screw  91,  is  pro- 
vided as  a  tappet  for  tripping  the  trigger  latch 
corresponding  to  its  order. 

From  the  above-described  combination  of  mech- 
anism, it  may  be  seen  that  if  a  key  in  any  order  is 
depressed,  it  will,  as  it  comes  in  contact  with  the 
stop  lever  16,  not  only  cause  the  adding  mechan- 
ism to  be  stopped  through  the  stop  19,  but  it  will 
also,  through  its  rear  arm  86,  cause  the  trigger 
latch  of  its  order  to  trip,  and  likewise  all  the  trigger 
latches  and  printing-hammers  to  the  right,  thus 
printing  the  figure  presented  on  the  printing  sec- 
tor in  the  order  in  which  the  key  was  operated  and 
the  ciphers  in  the  orders  to  the  right  in  case  the 
keys  in  the  order  to  the  right  have  not  previously 
been  operated. 


First  Practical  Recorders  123 


The  individual  presentation  of  the  type  figures 
upon  key  depression,  except  for  the  ciphers  which 
were  normally  presented  for  printing,  required 
that  in  striking  the  keys,  to  give  correct  record- 
ing of  the  items,  the  operation  must  be  from  right 
to  left.  That  is,  for  example,  if  the  item  to  be 
added  was  $740.85,  the  operator  would  depress  the 
(5)  key  in  the  uniis  cents  column,  the  (8)  key  in 
the  tens  of  cents  column ;  the  cipher  in  the  units 
dollars  column  would  be  omitted,  the  (4)  key  in 
the  tens  of  dollars,  and  the  (7)  key  in  the  hun- 
dreds of  dollars  column  would  be  struck. 

The  printing  hammers  were  provided  with  means 
for  resetting  after  being  tripped  in  the  recording 
action.  This  means  is  connected  with  the  paper 
shift-lever,  so  that  as  the  paper  was  shifted  or  fed 
upward,  ready  for  recording  the  next  item,  the 
printing-hammers  were  all  reset  and  latched  on 
their  respective  trigger  latches,  ready  for  a  new 
item. 

Fixed  to  the  shaft  97,  on  which  the  printing- 
hammers  are  pivoted,  is  a  bail,  marked  98,  part 
of  which  is  shown  in  the  drawing,  the  horizontal 
bar  of  which  normally  lies  under  and  out  of  the 
way  of  the  hammers  as  they  plunge  forward  in 
printing.  And  attached  to  the  right-hand  end  of 
the  shaft  97,  is  a  crank  arm  connected  by  a  link  to 
the  paper-shift  hand-lever,  which  may  be  seen  on 
the  right  in  the  photo  reproduction  of  the  machine. 
This  connection  is  arranged  so  that  depressing  the 
lever  causes  the  shaft  97  to  rock  the  bail  98  rear- 
ward, thus  picking  up  any  tripped  printing-ham- 
mers and  relatching  them. 

The  totals  had  to  be  printed,  as  in  the  first- 
described  Felt  recorder,  by  depressing  a  key  cor- 


124 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Felt  principle  of 
printing  adopted 
by  all  manufac- 
turers of  recorders 


Wide  paper 

carriage  for 

tabulating 


responding  in  value  to  the  figure  showing  on  the 
wheel  in  each  order. 

The  principle  involved  in  the  individual  ham- 
mer-blow, combined  with  the  ordinal  type  sector 
for  recording  in  a  recording-adder  was  new,  and 
was  the  feature  that  has  made  the  adding-record- 
ing  machine  of  today  possible,  as  is  well  in  evi- 
dence by  the  presence  of  this  combination  in  all  the 
recorders  that  have  been  made  by  the  successful 
manufacturers  of  listing  or  recording-adding  and 
calculating  machines.  Some  manufacturers  have 
substituted  a  vertical  moving  type  bar  for  the 
pivoted  sector,  but  the  scheme  is  the  same,  as  the 
purpose  is  to  get  the  arrangement  of  the  type  in 
columnar  order,  and  does  not  change  the  funda- 
mental features  of  the  combination  which  furn- 
ished the  practical  means  for  the  individual  type 
impression. 

The  Felt  Tabulator 

The  next  feature  in  the  Art,  that  has  served  in 
the  make-up  of  the  up-to-date  recorders,  was  the 
wide  paper-carriage.  This  feature  will  probably  be 
recognized  by  many  as  a  means  supplied  for  the 
recording  of  columns  of  items  in  series  on  sheet- 
paper. 

As  will  be  noted,  roll-paper  in  ribbon  form  had 
been  used  in  all  the  previously  illustrated  and  des- 
cribed recorders.  While  the  Ludlum  patent  shows 
a  carriage,  it  had  no  capacity  for  handling  more 
than  a  single  column  of  numerical  items.  The 
carriage  in  the  Ludlum  machine  was  a  feature 
necessary  to  the  tj^pewriter  construction  and  of- 
fered no  solution  to  the  feature  of  tabulating. 

The  first  disclosure  of  the  wide  carriage  feature 
for  tabulating  was  in  a  machine  made  by  D.  E.  Felt 


Fell  Tabulat..!- 


Ki 


First  Practical  Recorders 


127 


in  1889,  which  he  exhibited  to  the  U.  S.  Census 
Bureau  at  Washington,  D.  C,  in  1890.  The  ma- 
chine was  also  exhibited  at  the  World's  Fair  in 
Chicago,  in  1893,  along  with  other  products  in  this 
line  of  the  Felt  &  Tarrant  Mfg.  Co.  A  photo  repro- 
duction of  this  machine  is  shown  on  opposite  page. 

The  machine  was  left  at  the  Census  Bureau, 
where  it  was  used  for  several  weeks,  and  was  very 
much  liked.  Felt  made  a  contract  to  furnish  ten 
machines  of  this  type,  and  the  machine  was  recom- 
mended for  purchase  by  G.  K.  Holmes,  Special 
Agent  of  the  Census  Bureau,  but  like  many  other 
government  department  requisitions,  the  purchase 
order  was  never  issued. 

Although  this  feature  is  now  found  in  all  first- 
class  recording-adders,  the  recording  machine  Art 
was  too  new  in  1890  for  the  new  feature  to  be  ap- 
preciated, and  was  not  pushed,  as  there  seemed 
to  be  no  demand  for  the  wide  carriage  then.  On 
this  account  Felt  delayed  applying  for  a  patent 
on  his  invention  until  1899. 

In  1904  a  license  under  the  patent  was  granted 
the  Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Co.,  but  soon  after 
the  granting  of  the  license  another  manufacturer 
of  recording-adders  brought  out  a  machine  with  a 
wide  carriage,  which  was  the  start  of  a  series  of 
long-drawn-out  infringement  suits.  The  fact  that 
Felt  had  delayed  taking  out  his  patent  formed 
the  grounds  on  which  the  Court  finally  decided 
that  Felt,  from  lack  of  diligence  in  applying  for  a 
patent,  had  abandoned  his  invention,  which  made 
it  public  property. 

The  tags  which  may  be  seen  tied  to  the  carriage 
of  the  machine  are  the  official  tags  used  to  identify 
it  as  a  court  exhibit  during  the  long  term  of  years 
the  suits  were  pending  in  litigation. 


The  wide  paper 
rnrriage  machine 


Litigation  on 
tabulator  patents 


latino" 


128  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Outside  of  the  tabulating  scheme,  the  machine 
was  in  other  respects  the  same  as  the  recorder  just 
described  as  the  roll-paper  "Comptograph." 
'Cross  Tabu-  The  paper,  as  may  be  noted,  is  held  in  a  shiftable 

carriage  and  is  operated  by  two  levers,  one  to  feed 
the  paper  vertically  and  reset  the  printing-ham- 
mers, while  the  other  moved  the  carriage  laterally 
for  the  spacing  of  the  columns  of  items  or  the  cross- 
printing  when  desired.  Besides  the  lever  action  for 
shifting  and  paper-feeding,  means  were  provided 
on  the  right-hand  end  of  the  carriage  for  perform- 
ing these  functions ;  one  of  these  is  the  thumb 
knob  which  served  to  feed  the  sheet  of  paper  into 
the  rolls;  the  other  is  a  small  lever  which  allows 
the  operator  to  shift  the  carriage  by  hand  inde- 
pendent of  the  carriage  shift-lever. 


The  Third  Felt  Recorder 
While  the  first  lot  of  recording-adders  manufac- 
tured by  Felt  were  wholly  practical,  as  was  well 
proved  by  the  statements  of  those  who  purchased 
them,  it  is  easy  to  pick  out  features  in  their  make- 
up that  today,  when  compared  with  the  new 
highly-developed  Art,  would  seem  to  make  them 
impractical. 

The  necessity  of  operating  from  right  to  left  and 
the  necessity  of  printing  the  totals  by  key  depres- 
sion were  features  that,  in  view  of  there  being 
nothing  better  in  those  days,  did  not  seem  objec- 
tionable to  those  who  used  them.  They  were  fea- 
tures, however,  that  Felt  overcame  and  eliminated 
in  the  next  lot  of  machines  manufactured  and 
placed  on  the  market  in  1890. 

This  lot  of  machines,  one  hundred  in  number  (a 
goodly  number  in  those  days),  were  equipped  with 
a  special  hand-knob  in  front  on  the  left  side  for 


I""H   I  III! I   llljIMMWHI 


ENGINEERING, 


omitlc<l.  1  heae  keys  dvpress  lo  a  greater  or  less  extent    taken  to  insure  the  accuracy  of  tlie  regislktion  ;  the    ihw  lever./,  when 

a  long  le\er  «  which  is  U  "huptfl  in   rtctiun,  and  U    devices  for  ihis  purpose  we  will  now  describe.     Any    of  motion,  thus  depre^sir 


One  of  the  Ivirly  "('()ini)l<>fir;i|)h 


First  Practical  Recorders 


131 


automatically  printing  the  totals,  and  with  means 
by  which  the  ciphers  were  printed  only  on 
operation  of  the  paper  shift-lever,  which  allowed 
the  operator  to  depress  the  keys  from  left  to  right 
or  any  way  he  pleased. 

The  best  evidence  as  to  what  these  machines 
looked  like  is  to  be  found  in  the  reproduction  on 
the  opposite  page  of  an  illustration  which  appeared 
in  "Engineering"  of  London,  in  1891. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  patent  drawings  of  the 
Felt  calculator  are  also  displayed.  They  were  used 
to  describe  the  adding  mechanism  of  the  recorder. 

The  total  printing  device  is  shown  and  described 
in  patent  No.  465,255,  while  the  patent  for  the 
printing  of  the  ciphers  by  the  hand  shift-lever  was 
not  applied  for  until  1904. 

It  may  be  argued,  and  argued  true,  that  these 
two  later  features  in  their  generic  application  to 
the  recording-adding  machine  Art  were  anticipated 
by  Burroughs  in  his  invention  herein  previously 
described.  But,  assuming  that  these  features 
were  operative  features  in  the  Burroughs  machine, 
they  could  not  be  claimed  in  combination  with  a 
printing  mechanism  that  was  operative  to  give 
practical  results  and  in  themselves  did  not  make 
the  recording-adder  possible.  Nor  was  the  means 
shown  for  recording  the  totals  of  use  except  with 
means  for  legible  recording. 

There  is  no  desire  to  discredit  what  Burroughs 
did,  but  let  the  credit  for  what  Burroughs  accom- 
plished come  into  its  own,  in  accordance  with  the 
chronological  order  in  which  it  may  be  proved  that 
Burroughs  really  produced  a  machine  that  had  a 
practical  and  legible  recording  mechanism.  Then 
we  will  find  that  to  produce  such  proof  we  must 


Fell  recorder  in 
"Engineering"  of 
London,  Eng. 


Total  recording  a 
Fill  conibinalion 


132  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


accept  the  fact  that  in  all  the  successful  recording 

machines  manufactured  and  sold  by  the  Burroughs 

Legible  lisiing  of     Adding  Machine  Co.,  the  printing  type-sector,  the 

iiernx  and  auto-     printing  type-hammers  and  the  overlapping  ham- 

maiic  record mq  ,    .  -j.!      j.i     •       i  i    j?         j.-       •  x 

of  totals  first  mer- triggers  with  their  broad  functioning  f ea- 
achieved  by  Felt  tures  forming  a  part  of  Felt's  invention,  have  been 
used  to  produce  legible  recording,  and  that  the 
combination  of  practical  total  printing  was  de- 
pendent on  Felt's  achievement. 

We  might  say  that  broadly  Burroughs  invented 
means  that  could  be  worked  in  combination  with 
the  Felt  printing  scheme  to  automatically  print 
the  totals,  which  is  in  evidence  in  all  the  practical 
machines  put  out  by  the  Burroughs  Co. 

But  such  a  combination  was  first  produced  by 
Felt  in  1890,  and  was  not  produced  by  Burroughs 
until  1892. 

As  has  been  shown.  Felt  built  his  recording 
scheme  into  his  key-driven  calculating  machine, 
and  added  the  paper  shifting-lever  to  furnish  the 
power  which  was  utilized  finally  for  setting  the 
printing-hammers  and  tripping  them  for  the 
ciphers. 

Such  a  combination  divided  the  work,  but  made 
a  two-motion  machine,  whereas  the  adding  mech- 
anism was  designed  on  the  one-motion  principle. 
Now  the  principle  of  the  two-motion  machine  was 
old,  very  old.  The  great  Gottfried  Leibnitz  in- 
vented the  first  two-motion  calculator  in  1694. 
(See  illustration  on  opposite  page.) 

The  Leibnitz  machine  was  a  wonderful  invention 
and  there  seems  to  be  a  question  as  to  its  opera- 
tiveness.  As  a  feature  of  historic  interest,  how- 
ever, it  created  considerable  commotion  in  scien- 
tific circles  when  exhibited  to  the  Royal  Society  of 
London. 


Gottfried  Wilhelm  Ivcibnitz 


Lcihnitz  Ciilfulator,  made  in  KiOi 
The  riist  Two-Motion  Macliine  Desifincd  to  ('..nip 
Mullii)iicati<)n  l)y  1{<m"':'"-'I  Addition 


pnncip'e  more 
practical  for 


First  Practical  Recorders  135 


The  first  really  practical  machine  of  this  type, 
however,  was  invented  by  a  Frenchman  named 
Charles  Xavier  Thomas,  in  1820,  and  has  since 
become  known  as  the  "Thomas  Arithmometre." 

The  Thomas  machine  is  made  and  sold  by  a 
number  of  different  foreign  manufacturers,  and  is 
used  to  a  considerable  extent  in  Europe  and  to  a 
limited  extent  in  the  United  States. 

But  two-motion  calculators,  from  Leibnitz  down  The  key-sei 
to  date,  have  always  been  constructed  so  that  the 
primary  or  first  action  involved  merely  the  setting  'recorder. 
of  the  controlling  devices  and  performed  no  func- 
tion in  the  supplying  of  power  to  operate  the 
mechanism  which  does  the  adding.  With  such  ma- 
chines the  load  was  thrown  on  to  the  secondary 
action. 

This,  of  course,  made  the  primaiy  action  of 
setting,  a  very  light  action,  especially  when  keys 
came  into  use,  and  as  there  are  several  key  de- 
pressions to  each  secondary  or  crank  action,  it 
may  be  understood  that  while  the  action  of  Felt's 
printing  or  paper  shift-lever  was  light,  the  action 
of  the  keys  which  were  called  upon  to  perform 
most  of  the  work  was  much  harder  than  it  would 
have  been  if  his  adding  mechanism  had  been  de- 
signed on  the  key-set  crank-operated  plan  of  the 
regular  two-motion  machine  such  as  illustrated  in 
the  Pottin  or  Burroughs  patents  described. 

Thus,  when  Burroughs  applied  the  Felt  record- 
ing principle  to  his  key-set  crank-operated  adding 
mechanism,  he  produced  a  type  of  recording  ma- 
chine which  proved  to  be  more  acceptable  from  an 
operative  standpoint  than  the  recorder  made  by 
Felt;  and  yet  the  writer  has  read  testimonials 
given  by  those  who  had  both  the  Felt  key-driven 


I 


From  Drawings  of  Burroughs'  Patenti^ 
Nos.  504,963  and  505,078 


First  Practical  Recorders 


137 


recorder  and  the  Burroughs  key-set  crank-operated 
recorders,  who  claimed  they  could  see  no  advantage. 
Probably  the  best  proof  lies  in  the  fact  that 
Felt  finally  abandoned  the  key-driven  feature  in 
his  recorders,  as  may  be  noted  from  the  later-day 
"Comptograph." 

The  First  Practical  Burrouoiis  Recorder 

The  first  Burroughs  patent  to  show  the  success- 
ful combination  referred  to  was  No,  504,963,  ap- 
plied for  May  5,  1892,  and  issued  September  12, 
1893.  The  printing  scheme,  however,  while  indi- 
cated in  the  said  patent,  was  applied  for  in  a 
divisional  patent.  No.  505,078,  issued  on  the  same 
date.  Drawings  from  both  these  patents  are  shown 
on  opposite  page. 

The  new  printing  device,  as  will  be  noted,  in- 
stead of  operating  at  the  bottom  of  the  machine, 
operates  at  the  rear  and  prints  the  paper  against 
a  roll  mounted  outside  of  the  casing. 

Outside  of  adopting  the  Felt  method  of  printing, 
the  general  scheme  of  construction  used  in  the 
machine  of  the  fonner-described  Burroughs  patent 
was  maintained,  except  that  the  levers  D,  used  to 
drag  the  denominational  actuators  down,  were 
omitted,  and  a  series  of  springs,  one  for  each  actu- 
ator, was  supplied  to  pull  such  levers  down  as  are 
released  by  key-depression  when  the  common  ac- 
tuator drops  under  crank  action. 

Thus  the  description  previously  given  will  suf- 
fice for  a  general  understanding  of  the  mechanical 
functions  of  the  adding  mechanism  and  the  gen- 
eral scheme  for  the  setting  up  of  the  type  in  these 
later  patents. 

The  construction  of  the  type  sectors,  the  print- 
ing-hammers and  the  trigger-latches  used  to.  re- 


Hiirnm^'lis  l^ccdnltT 


Description  of 
Jirsl  practical 
Burroughs 
recorder 


138  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


tain  the  hammers  against  the  action  of  their  oper- 
ating springs  is  best  shown  in  the  drawings  of 
patent  No.  505,078  on  page  136.  Fig.  1  shows 
the  normal  relation,  while  Fig.  2  illustrates  the 
same  mechanism  in  the  act  of  printing. 

The  type  sector  as  shown  in  drawings  of  patent 
No.  505,078  is  marked  K,  while  in  the  drawings  of 
No.  504,963  it  will  be  found  marked  61 1^  They  are 
formed  from  a  continuation  of  the  denominational 
actuators  for  the  total  register  in  the  same  man- 
ner that  the  type-wheel  gear-racks  h,  of  the  pre- 
viously described  Burroughs  patent  were  formed. 

The  type  u,  are  arranged  on  movable  blocks 
marked  618,  which  are  shown  held  in  their  re- 
tracted or  normal  position  by  springs  682,  but 
when  pressure  is  brought  to  bear  against  these  type 
blocks  in  a  direction  outward  from  the  sector,  the 
spring  682  will  give  and  the  type  blocks  will  slide 
outward  in  the  slots  provided  to  guide  their  action. 

The  paper,  as  will  be  noted,  is  fed  from  a  roll, 
up  between  the  type  and  the  printing-roll  599,  in 
the  same  manner  as  the  paper  of  a  typewriter,  and 
through  the  interposition  of  an  ink-ribbon  between 
the  type  and  the  paper,  the  pressing  of  the  type 
against  the  ink-ribbon,  paper  and  roll  gives  imprint. 

The  pressure  brought  to  bear  on  the  type  is 
through  the  hammer-blow  of  the  printing-ham- 
mers 715,  of  which  there  is  one  for  each  ordinal 
printing  sector.  These  hammers  are  pivoted  to 
the  rod  701,  and  are  spring-actuated  through  the 
medium  of  the  pin  741,  the  lever  716,  and  spring 
780,  which,  combined  with  the  cam-slot  w,  in  the 
printing-hammers,  serve  to  force  the  printing- 
hammers  into  the  position  shown  in  Fig.  2. 


First  Practical  Recorders  139 


The  printing-hammers  are  normally  retracted 
and  latched  by  a  series  of  trigger  latches  117, 
through  the  latch-tooth  b,  which  engages  the  lever 
716  at  V. 

Each  trigger-latch  117,  is  pivoted  on  the  rod 
700,  and  provided  with  an  overlapping  lug  as  shown 
in  Fig.  4.  These  overlapping  lugs,  like  those  de- 
scribed on  the  trigger-latches  in  the  Felt  patent, 
serve  as  an  automatic  means  of  filling  in  the  ci- 
phers in  the  same  manner  as  described  in  the  Felt 
machine. 

The  means  for  tripping  the  overlapping  trigger 
latches  naturally  differed  from  the  means  shown 
in  the  Felt  machine,  as  the  Burroughs  machine 
was  not  key-driven. 

A  very  ingenious  means  for  the  tripping  of  the 
trigger-latches  is  shown,  consisting  of  the  dogs 
718,  and  rock-frame  711,  and  tie-rods  703-704, 
which  co-operate  with  a  cam-shoulder  y  on  the 
arm  of  the  printing-sectors,  to  remain  neutral  or 
to  disengage  the  trigger-latches  through  a  recip- 
rocating action,  shown  in  dotted  lines  in  Fig.  1, 
patent  No.  505,078. 

The  tripping  action  takes  place  at  the  end  of 
the  forward  motion  of  the  actuating  hand-crank 
through  connections  not  shown  in  the  drawings. 

It  may  be  understood  that  on  account  of  the 
overlapping  of  the  trigger-latches  of  the  printing- 
hammers  that  if,  as  described  in  relation  to  the 
Felt  recording-machine,  one  of  the  trigger-latches 
in  any  order  to  the  left  of  the  units  order  should 
be  tripped,  it  would  cause  all  the  trigger-latches 
to  the  right  to  be  also  tripped,  and  the  printing- 
hammers  thus  released  to  spring  fonvard,  giving 


140  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


an  individual  hammer-blow  for  each  type  impres- 
sion. 

Thus,  if  the  five-hundred-dollar  key  should  be 
depressed,  only  the  trigger  latch  in  that  order 
need  be  tripped.  This  is  brought  about  through 
the  fact  that  nonnally  the  tripping-dogs  718  are 
held  out  of  tripping  engagement  by  the  cam  sur- 
face y  of  the  type-sector,  as  the  rock-frame  in 
which  the  dogs  are  mounted  is  moved  forward  in 
its  tripping  action.  But  as  the  hundred-dollar  order 
type-sector  has  been  lifted  through  the  setting  of 
the  (5)  key  in  that  order,  it  allows  the  tripping- 
dog  to  engage  the  trigger-latch  of  that  order,  and 
through  the  overlapping  feature  of  the  trigger- 
latches  to  trip  and  print  the  ciphers  to  the  right. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  application  of  the  print- 
ing-hammers varied  in  detail  from  that  of  Felt 
much  the  same  as  placing  the  latch  on  the  gate 
post  instead  of  on  the  gate.   In  the  generic  prin- 
ciple, however,  the  individual  hammer-blow  for 
each  individual  impression  was  maintained. 
Dale  of  use  of       There  have  been  many  conflicting  statements 
first  practical    made  regarding  the  date  of  the  first  Burroughs 
recorder    listing  or  recording  machine,  which  is  probably 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  statements  were  not  quali- 
fied by  such  terms  as  "practically  operative"  or 
"legible  recording." 

Dates  given  as  that  of  the  first  Burroughs  re- 
cording machine  range  from  1884  to  1892.  In  a 
book  published  by  the  Burroughs  Co.  in  1912,  un- 
der the  title  of  the  "Book  of  the  Burroughs,"  there 
was  a  statement  that  the  first  practical  machines 
were  made  in  1891. 

H.  B.  Wyeth,  at  one  time  sales  agent  for  the 
Burroughs  Co.,  and  whose  father  was  president 


First  in  Use  (1892) 
First  in  Usefulness  '^Snlt  ^^^  ^'^""'  "^"^  °' 
First  in  the  Hearts  of  Over  63,000 
Users 

The  Burroughs 

Adding  and  Listing  Machine 

ft  Here's  where  1908  finds  the  adding-machine  industry 

ft  We  sold  13,314  machines  m  1907 

ft  This  one  year's  sales  of  BURROUGHS  machines  is  greater  than  the  combined  sales  of  all  other  makes 
of  adding  and  listing  machines  during  all  the  years  of  their  existence  -  and  some  of  them  have  been  on 
the  market  nearly  as  long  as  the  BURROUGHS. 

ft  "All  other  makes''  includes  some  twenty  or  more  different  styles  of  adding  and  listing  machines  which 
have  made  their  bid  for  public  favor  since  the  perfection  of  the  adding  and  listing  machine  by  William 
Seward  Burroughs  fifteen  years  ago.  Many  of  these  other  devices  have  now  passed  into  adding-machine 
history.  Some  of  them  were  well  financed  and  ably  organized,  yet  they  failed  to  win  the  endorsement 
of  commercial  success.  Surely  there  was  some  fault  in  the  machines  themselves  which  made  them  un- 
fitted to  compete  with  the  known  reliability  of  the  BURROUGHS. 

ft  Regarding  those  machines  which  have  survived,  there  are  more  BURROUGHS  in  use  to-day  in  a  single 
Stale  than  any  other  maker  of  adding  and  listing  machines  has  sold  in  the  whole  United  States. 

ft  The  BURROUGHS  sold  more  machines  in  a  single  State  in  1907  than  some  ot  its  leading  competi- 
tors produced  in  the  same  period. 

ft  Tli£se  facts  indicate  the  place  which  the  BURROUGHS  occupies  in  the  estimation  ot  the  purchasing 
public. 

There  are  58  Different  Styles  of  BURROUGHS-One  Built  for  Every  Line  of  Business 

63.574  Burroughs  Users  (Jan.  18, '08) 

Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Company 

67  Amsterdam  Avenue,  Detroit,  Michigan,  U.  S.  A. 


From  the  February  1908  Issue  of 
Office  Appliances  Magazine 


First  Practical  Recorders  143 


of  the  company  in  1891  and  several  years  there- 
after, testified  in  court  that  the  first  sale  of  a  Bur- 
roughs recording  machine  was  made  about  Decem- 
ber, 1892.  Corroboration  of  his  testimony  is  set 
forth  in  a  Burroughs  advertisement  which  ap- 
peared in  the  February  number  of  Office  AppH- 
ances  Magazine  in  1908,  a  reproduction  of  which  is 
shown  on  the  opposite  page. 

That  Burroughs  was  experimenting  as  early  as 
1885  is  no  doubt  correct ;  and  that  in  this  respect 
he  antidated  Felt's  first  attempt  to  produce  a  re- 
cording-adder, is  not  questioned.  But  when  it 
comes  to  the  question  of  who  produced  the  first 
practical  recording-adder,  there  is  no  room  for 
doubt  in  face  of  the  evidence  at  hand. 


Opposition  to  the 

use  of  machines 

for  accounting 


Introduction  of  the  Modern 
Accounting  Machine 

AS  the  reader  has  been  carried  along  through 
the  tangle  of  mechanical  efforts  of  the  men 
who  have  racked  their  brains  to  produce 
means  that  would  relieve  the  burden  of  those  who 
have  to  juggle  with  arithmetical  problems  and 
masses  of  figures  in  the  day's  accounting,  there 
was  one  phase  of  subject  that  has  not  been  touched 
upon.  While  these  inventors  were  doing  their 
best  to  benefit  mankind  and,  without  doubt,  with 
the  thought  of  reaping  a  harvest  for  themselves, 
the  public,  who  could  have  been  the  prime  bene- 
ficiary, did  not  hasten  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
opportunity. 

In  the  early  days,  when  the  key-driven  calcula- 
tor was  marketed,  and  later  when  the  recording- 
adder  was  also  placed  on  the  market,  the  efforts 
of  the  salesmen  for  each  of  these  types  of  ma- 
chines, in  their  endeavor  to  interest  possible  pur- 
chasers, were  met  with  anything  but  enthusiasm. 
Of  course,  now  and  then  a  wide-awake  business- 
man was  willing  to  be  shown  and  would  pur- 
chase, but  ninety-nine  out  of  the  hundred  who 
really  had  use  for  a  machine  of  either  type  could 
not  at  that  early  date  be  awakened  to  the  fact. 

Although  the  calculator  and  the  recording-adder 
are  indispensable  factors  in  business  today,  and 
have  served  to  improve  the  lot  of  the  book-keeper 
and  those  employed  in  expert  accounting  in  gen- 


Introduction  of  the  Modern  Accounting  Machine  145 


eral,  they  met  with  very  strong  opposition  for  the 
first  few  years  from  employers  of  this  class.  It 
was  strongly  evident  that  the  efforts  of  book- 
keepers and  counting-house  clerks  to  prevent  these 
machines  entering  their  department  were  inspired 
by  the  fear  that  it  would  displace  their  services 
and  interfere  with  their  chance  of  a  livelihood. 

Again,  men  of  this  class,  and  even  those  in 
charge  of  large  departments,  took  the  mere  sug- 
gestion that  they  had  use  for  a  calculator  or  re- 
cording-adder as  an  insult  to  their  efficiency,  and 
would  almost  throw  the  salesman  out.  Others 
would  very  politely  look  the  machine  over  and  tell 
the  salesman  what  a  wonderful  machine  it  was, 
but  when  asked  to  give  the  machine  a  trial,  they 
would  immediately  back  up  and  say  that  they  had 
absolutely  no  use  for  such  a  machine ;  whereas  pos- 
sibly now  the  same  department  is  using  twenty- 
five  to  a  hundred  such  machines. 

Of  the  two  classes  of  machines,  the  recording,  Banksjuort- 
or  listing  machines,  as  they  are  commonly  called, 
although  a  later  product,  were  the  first  to  sell  in 
quantities  that  may  be  called  large  sales.  This 
was  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  they  were 
largely  sold  to  the  banks,  who  have  always  been 
more  liberal  in  recognizing  the  advantages  of 
labor-saving  devices  than  any  other  class  of  busi- 
ness. 

The  presence  of  these  machines  in  the  bank  also 
had  a  tendency  to  influence  business-men  to  install 
recorders  where  the  key-driven  calculator  would 
have  given  far  greater  results  in  quantity  of  work 
and  expense  of  operating.  In  these  days,  however, 
the  average  business-man  is  alive  to  his  reouire- 
ments,  and  selects  what  is  best  suited  to  his  n^eds 


liberal  in 
recognition 


146         ^    I  Obigin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


instead  of  being  influenced  by  seeing  a  machine 
used  by  others  for  an  entirely  different  purpose. 
The  theory  of  using  the  printed  list  of  items  as  a 
means  of  checking  back  has  blown  into  a  bubble 
and  burst,  and  the  non-lister  has  come  into  its 
own,  not  but  what  there  has  always  been  a  good 
sale  for  these  machines  except  for  the  first  four 
years. 
Improvements  On  account  of  the  years  it  took  to  educate  busi- 
slow  for  first  nggs  into  the  use  of  these  two  types  of  accounting 
machines,  and  the  fact  that  the  sales  of  both  were 
small  at  first,  there  were  few  improvements  for 
several  years,  as  improvements  depend  upon  pros- 
perity. 

Such  changes  as  have  been  made  since  were 
largely  aimed  at  refinements,  but  there  are  some 
very  noteworthy  features  added  to  the  perform- 
ance of  both  types  of  machines,  which  are  ex- 
plained and  described  in  following  chapters,  where 
*  the  subject  will  be  treated  under  the  class  of  ma- 
chines they  affect. 


The  High-Speed  Calculator 

As  previously  stated,  the  calculating  machine 
was  old  when  Felt  improved  the  Art  by  com- 
bining the  key-drive  with  a  plurality  of  co- 
operative orders  of  adding  mechanism.  The  ad- 
vantage in  the  machine  he  produced  existed  in  the 
great  increase  in  rapid  manipulation  which  it  of- 
fered over  the  older  Art,  especially  in  addition.  To 
improve  upon  Felt's  contribution  to  the  Art  of  cal- 
culating machines  from  a  commercial  standpoint 
demanded  a  combination  that  would  give  still 
greater  possibilities  in  rapid  manipulation. 

The  patent  records  show  that  Felt  again  came    feii  improve- 
to  the  front  and  gave  to  the  public  a  new  machine     'nentson 
containing  many  new  combinations  of  highly-or-       ""P^" 
ganized  mechanism  that  produced  the  above-named 
result.    The  patents  showing  these  features  are 
Nos.  762,520  and  762,521,  the  two  patents  being 
divisional  patents  of  the  same  machine. 

Although  there  were  several  patents  on  key- 
driven  calculators  issued  to  others  and  a  key- 
driven  calculator  placed  on  the  market,  which  was 
sold  to  some  extent,  none  of  these  calculators  of- 
fered anything  that  would  increase  the  possibility 
of  more  rapid  manipulation  than  was  to  be  had 
from  Felt's  old  Comptometer. 

There  is  one  feature  about  the  machine  of  these 
two  divisional  patents  which  stands  out  very  prom- 
inently to  those  acquainted  with  the  fine  points  of 
the  physical  laws  of  mechanics.  It  is  a  feature  that 
was  not  printed  into  the  specifications.  It  may  be 
found  only  in  the  time  allowed  for  the  mechanical 

149 


150  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


movements  to  take  place,  which  shows  that  theoret- 
ical reasoning  was  the  foundation  for  the  distribution 
of  the  functions  in  the  machine  of  these  patents 
into  increments  of  time,  and  that  the  arrangement 
of  mechanism  was  especially  designed  to  carry 
Scientific  out  this  primary  theoretical  reasoning.  While  it 
of%nctions  ^^  obvious  that  such  procedure  must  accompany 
successful  invention  of  mechanism,  it  is  seldom 
that  we  find  such  fineness  displayed  as  may  be 
found  in  the  timing  of  the  mechanical  functions 
of  the  later  Comptometer. 

The  force  of  the  above  statement  may  be  real- 
ized by  study  of  the  mechanical  motions  of  the  old 
Comptometer  and  then  trying  to  improve  on  them 
to  attain  greater  speed  of  operation.  Such  a  possi- 
bility would  depend  on  more  rapid  key-strokes. 

According  to  the  physical  laws  of  force  and  mo- 
tion, to  attain  greater  speed  of  action  demanded 
a  decrease  in  resistance.  Thus,  less  key  resistance 
must  be  attained  to  increase  speed  of  operation. 

Felt  probably  knew  from  experience  that  lighter 
key  action  could  not  be  had  by  juggling  with 
springs  or  by  polished  surfaces.  He  was  also  aware 
of  the  infinitesimal  space  of  time  allotted  to  each 
function,  as  the  parts  of  the  mechanism  flew 
about  in  the  merry  dance  they  performed  in  whirl- 
ing the  numeral  wheels  around  while  under  the 
manipulation  of  an  expert  operator.  He  couldn't 
see  the  parts  work — he  could  only  theorize  when 
there  was  trouble ;  thus  he  alone  knew  the  difficul- 
ties to  be  met  in  attempting  to  make  a  more  rapid 
calculator. 

To  describe  the  mechanism  of  the  new  machine 
from  drawings  of  these  patents  would  leave  the 
reader  still  in  the  dark.   What  was  really  accom- 


The  High-Spekd  Calculator  151 


plished  can  best  be  understood  by  reference  to 
the  mechanical  action  in  the  old  Comptometer. 

In  order  that  the  reader  may  understand  the 
significance  of  what  was  accomplished,  let  him  con- 
sider this  fact;  that  the  key  action  of  the  old 
"Comptometer"  measured  as  high  as  eighty-six 
ounces  to  a  key  depression,  while  in  the  new  ma- 
chine made  under  the  two  named  later  patents  the 
key  depression  was  reduced  to  but  twenty-two 
ounces  maximum,  or  a  little  over  a  fourth  of  the 
power  required  to  operate  the  keys  of  the  old 
"Comptometer." 

Facts  show  that  a  very  large  part  of  the  resist-  Power  consumed 
ance  met  with  in  the  key  depression  of  the  old  meUiod"'^'^^^^^ 
machine  was  caused  by  the  high  tension  of  the 
springs  which  performed  the  carrying.  This  high 
tension  was  necessary  on  account  of  the  extremely 
small  fraction  of  a  second  allowed  for  the  perform- 
ance of  their  function  of  supplying  the  power  that 
turned  the  higher  wheel  in  carrying. 

By  referring  to  the  description  of  the  inopera- 
tive features  of  the  Hill  machine  (page  25)  a 
parallel  example  of  the  time  for  the  carry  of  the 
tens  in  the  old  Comptometer  may  be  found,  show- 
ing that  but  a  1/165  of  a  second  was  the  allowance. 

The  carrying  means  employed  in  the  old  Compt- 
ometer consisted  of  levers  with  dogs  or  pawls 
hinged  on  their  free  ends,  which  co-acted  with  the 
ten  pins  of  the  higher  numeral  wheels  to  ratchet 
them  forward  a  step  at  a  time.  The  power  for  sup- 
plying such  ratcheting  action,  in  the  delivery  of  a 
carry,  was  produced  in  a  spring  attached  to  the 
carrying-lever  to  actuate  it. 

The  means  used  to  produce  the  power  in  the 
cariying-lever  actuating  springs,  or  best  termed 


152  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Cam  and  lever  carrying  springs,  was  through  the  turning  of  an 
carrying  envolute  Cam  attached  to  the  lower  order  numeral 
wheels,  which,  acting  upon  an  arm  of  the  carrying 
levers,  forced  them  away  from  the  wheels,  and 
thus  tensioned  the  carrying  springs.  The  cam  and 
lever  is  best  shown  in  Fig.  7,  page  130. 

The  timing  of  the  delivery  of  the  carry,  as  the 
numeral  wheel  passed  from  nine  to  zero,  was 
brought  about  by  the  high  point  of  the  cam  pass- 
ing from  under  the  arm  of  the  carrying  lever, 
which,  when  released,  allowed  the  carrying  springs 
to  act  and  ratchet  the  higher  wheel  forward  a 
tenth  of  a  revolution. 

This  form  of  carrying  action  had  a  peculiarity 
of  reaching  a  certain  set  tension  when  three  wheels 
were  employed,  so  that  for  all  the  wheels  employed 
in  greater  numbers  no  higher  tension  was  re- 
quired and  no  lower  tension  could  be  attained. 
Another  feature  about  this  type  of  transfer  de- 
vice was  the  fact  that  to  get  the  set  tension  as  low 
as  possible  required  that  at  least  eight-tenths  of 
the  rotation  of  the  lower  wheel  should  be  utilized 
in  camming  back  the  carrying  lever  or  storing  the 
power  for  the  carry.  A  decrease  in  this  timing 
meant  an  increase  in  the  resistance  offered  in  turn- 
ing the  lower  wheel  by  the  steeper  incline  of  the 
cam,  and  when  the  wheel  in  turn  received  a  carry, 
the  increase  of  resistance  increased  the  work  of 
carrying,  and  so  on  by  a  geometric  ratio. 

In  a  recent  patent  suit,  a  physical  test  was  made 
as  high  as  three  orders  with  a  one-point  cam ;  that 
is,  a  cam  operating  to  store  power  during  a  one- 
tenth  rotation  of  the  lower  wheel  (not  an  uncom- 
mon combination  as  shown  in  patents  that  have 
been  issued),  and  it  was  found  that  by  the  time 
the  third  carrying  was  reached  the  springs  were 


The  Hiciii-SPEED  Calculator 


153 


so  large  and  powerful  that  to  turn  the  next  wheel 
would  require  a  railway-coach  spring,  and  that 
under  the  same  ratio  a  fifty-four  ton  hydraulic 
press  would  be  required  to  depress  the  keys  in  the 
eighth  order. 

The  foregoing  illustration  of  the  idiosyncrasies 
of  mechanical  construction  offer  a  good  example  of 
why  perpetual  motion  is  not  possible,  viz.,  that  no 
mechanism  was  ever  made  that  would  not  consume 
a  certain  per  cent  of  the  power  delivered  to  it, 
through  friction  and  inertia.  Of  course,  expert 
knowledge  of  the  physical  laws  of  mechanics  allow 
of  the  application  of  force  along  the  lines  of  least 
resistance,  and  it  is  with  this  feature  that  the  new 
improvements  in  the  Comptometer  have  to  do. 

It  would  seem  that  the  old  carrying  means 
could  not  be  improved  upon  under  the  circum- 
stances, but  Felt  conceived  a  means  which  gave 
more  time  for  the  storage  of  power  for  the  carry 
and  all  kinds  of  time  for  its  delivery,  which  de- 
creased the  power  required  for  carrying  by  a  very 
large  per  cent.  The  means  he  devised  was  a  motor- 
type  of  carrying  mechanism  that  could  receive  and 
deliver  power  at  the  same  time  without  interfer- 
ence. Thus  the  full  revolution  of  the  lower  wheel 
could  be  utilized  in  storage  and  the  same  amount 
of  time  could  be  consumed  in  delivery  if  necessary, 
but  it  was  never  required. 

This  tremendous  reduction  in  power  required  to 
turn  the  higher  wheel  in  a  carrying  operation  so 
decreased  the  resistance  of  turning  the  numeral 
wheels  that  the  former  means  used  to  control  the 
wheels  during  actuation  was  unsafe;  that  is,  the 
old  method  of  jabbing  the  stop-detent  between  the 
pins  of  the  numeral  wheel  to  stop  it  was  not  depend- 


One-poinl  carry- 
ing cam 
impossible 


Fell's  improved 
method  of 
carrying 


154  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


able  with  the  increased  speed  that  the  numeral 
wheels  revolved,  under  the  reduced  resistance. 

Again,  the  featureof  time  was  at  issue.  The  wheels 
could  be  whirled  at  tremendous  speed  or  at  a  very 
slow  speed.  A  sudden  jab  at  a  key  with  the  finger 
sent  the  numeral  wheels  kiting  ahead  of  the  rest 
of  the  mechanism  so  that  the  detent  could  not  be 
depended  upon  to  enter  between  the  right  pins, 
which  would  result  in  erroneous  calculation. 

In  the  new  machine,  we  find  that  to  overcome 
this  unevenness  of  action.  Felt  reversed  the  ratchet 
action  of  the  denomination  actuators,  so  that  no 
wheel  action  occun-ed  on  their  down  stroke  under 
the  action  of  the  keys,  but  on  the  upstroke  of  the 
actuators  the  numeral  wheels  were  turned  by  the 
power  of  the  actuator  springs  stored  by  the  key 
depression,  thus  giving  an  even  set  rotating  action 
that  could  not  be  forced  and  that  could  be  con- 
trolled by  a  stop  detent. 

As  the  timing  of  this  stop-action  was  coincident 
with  the  stopping  of  the  actuators  on  their  up- 
stroke, the  actuator  was  used  to  perform  this 
function  in  combination  with  a  detent  device  that 
could  be  released  from  the  wheel  independent  of 
the  actuators  to  allow  a  carry  to  be  delivered. 
Gauging  and  con-  A  feature  worthy  of  note  connected  with  this 
iroiling  prime  change  is  displayed  in  the  method  in  which  Felt 
overcame  the  timing  of  the  stop  action  of  the  actu- 
ators in  the  downward  action  they  received  from 
the  keys,  which  would  have  been  as  hard  to  control 
as  it  was  to  control  the  wheels  under  direct  key 
action. 

The  scheme  he  devised  gave  more  than  double  the 
time  to  perform  the  function  of  intercepting  the 
lightning  action  with  which  the  actuators  moved 
under  a  quick  key-stroke.    The  scheme  shows  a 


The  High-Speed  Calculator  155 


dual  alternating  stop-action  constructed  by  the  use       Mternatiny 


of  two  stops  acting  at  different  levels  and  co-act- 
ing alternately  with  five  equi-spaced  stop-shoul- 
ders on  the  front  end  of  the  actuators,  which  were 
also  arranged  in  different  levels. 

The  two  stops  were  actuated  by  the  keys  in  a 
similar  manner  to  the  single  stop  which  co-oper- 
ated with  the  pins  of  the  wheel  in  the  old  "Compt- 
ometer," except  that  the  odd  keys  operated  one 
stop  while  the  even  keys  operated  the  other. 

Thus  in  the  new  "Comptometer"  the  (1)  key 
acted  to  throw  the  higher  level  stop  into  the  path 
of  the  lowest  stop-shoulder  on  the  actuator,  and 
the  (2)  key  acted  to  throw  the  lower  level  stop  in- 
to the  path  of  the  same  stop-shoulder  on  the  actu- 
ator. In  the  same  manner  the  (3)  and  (4)  keys 
caused  the  odd  and  even  stops  to  engage  the  next 
higher  stop-shoulder  on  the  actuator  and  so  on 
with  the  rest  of  the  keys. 

As  the  spacing  was  doubled  by  the  use  of  but 
five  stop-shoulders,  the  stops  were  allowed  double 
the  time  for  entry  between  the  stop-shoulders 
plus  the  space  that  the  pin  occupied  as  compared 
with  former  method,  which  was  considerably  more 
than  double  the  time  allowed  for  the  same  func- 
tion in  the  old  machine. 

Besides  the  redistribution  of  mechanical  func- 
tions, another  very  noteworthy  feature  is  found 
in  these  patents  which,  in  the  specific  means  dis- 
closed, constituted  another  distribution  of  time  for 
mechanical  action.  This  in  the  capacity  of  the 
machine  was  what  has  become  commercially  known 
as  the  "Duplex"  feature. 

In  the  old  "Comptometer"  it  was  necessary  to 
operate  the  keys  alternately,  as  a  carry  from  one 
order  to  a  higher  order  might  be  taking  place  and 


lop  scheme 


156 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Multiplex 
key  action 


Control  of  the 

carry  by  the  next 

higher  actuator 


thus  be  lost  in  the  action  of  the  higher  order  wheel 
while  rotating  under  key-action. 

In  the  machine  of  the  later  patents  the  carry 
was  delayed  while  the  higher-order  wheel  was 
under  key-action.  The  construction  shown  con- 
sisted of  a  latch  operated  by  the  actuators,  which, 
when  the  actuator  was  depressed,  latched  up  the 
delivery  end  of  the  motor  carrying-device  so  that 
a  carry  due  to  take  place  at  that  time  would  be 
intercepted  until  the  actuator  returned  to  normal 
again,  at  which  time  the  carrying  motor  device 
was  again  free  to  deliver  the  carry.  This  feature 
allowed  the  striking  of  keys  in  several  or  all  the 
orders  simultaneously,  alternately,  or  any  way  the 
operator  pleased,  which  was  a  great  improvement 
in  speedy  operativeness. 

While  the  genus  of  this  elastic  keyboard  inven- 
tion consisted  of  control  of  the  carry  by  the  next 
higher  actuator,  the  specie  of  the  generic  feature 
shown  was  the  delayed  control.  The  first  produc- 
tion of  this  generic  feature  of  control  of  the  carry 
by  the  next  higher  actuator  that  gave  the  elastic 
keyboard-action  is  shown  in  the  two  Felt  patents. 

It  may  be  argued  that  this  new  keyboard  fea- 
ture was  simultaneity  of  key-action  and  that  simul- 
taneity of  keyboard-action  was  old.  True  it  was 
old,  but  the  flexible  simultaneity  was  new  and 
depended  upon  individuality  of  ordinal  control  for 
its  creation,  and  Felt  created  the  ordinal  control 
that  gave  the  flexible  keyboard. 

Simultaneity  of  key-action  was  old  in  key-driven 
cash  registers;  such  invention  as  had  been  dis- 
closed in  this  line,  however,  would  defeat  the  use- 
fulness of  simultaneity  in  a  key-driven  calculator. 
The  useful  feature  of  depressing  keys  in  several 


The  High-Speed  Calculator  157 


orders  at  once  in  a  key-driven  calculating  machine 
lay  only  in  the  increased  speed  of  manipulation 
that  it  could  offer. 

Now  such  simultaneous  key-action  as  had  been  Forced  simulia- 
invented  and  used  on  cash  registers  was  not  de-  ^'[jj"*'  l^ey-achon 
signed  with  the  thought  of  increasing  the  speed 
of  manipulation  in  such  machines.  The  simul- 
taneity of  the  cash  register  was  designed  to  com- 
pel the  operator  to  depress  the  keys,  which  repre- 
sented the  amount  of  the  purchase,  exactly  simul- 
taneous; otherwise,  by  manipulation  the  proper 
registration  could  be  made  to  show  on  the  sight- 
register  and  a  short  amount  on  the  total-register. 
It  was  a  device  to  keep  the  clerk  or  salesman 
straight  and  prevent  dishonesty. 

If  you  have  ever  watched  ^n  expert  operator     Forced  simuiia- 
using  a  "Comptometer,"  try  to  imagine  that  opera-     ^lalcuMon 
tor  hesitating  to  select  a  group  of  keys  and  de-     impossible 
pressing  them  exactly  simultaneously  as  one  is 
compelled  to  do  on  one  of  the  key-driven  cash 
registers.  And  then,  on  the  other  hand,  if  you  have 
ever  seen  a  key-driven  cash  register  operated,  try 
to  imagine  its  being  operated  at  the  lightning 
speed  at  which  the  "Comptometer"  is  operated.* 

It  must  be  understood  that  the  exact  or  forced 
simultaneity  of  the  cash  register  scheme,  if  ap- 
plied to  a  calculating  machine,  would  lock  the 
whole  keyboard  if  one  of  any  of  a  group  of  keys 
the  operator  wished  to  strike  was  depressed  ahead 
of  the  others,  and  would  thus  prevent  the  rest  of 
the  group  from  being  depressed  until  the  return 
of  the  first  key. 

•  In  making  this  comparison,  the  reader  should  be  careful  not  to 
confuse  the  later  key-set  crank-driven  .type  like  that  of  Pottin  de- 
scribed in  the  preceding  chapter.  It  was  the  old  key-driven  type  of 
cash  register  which  contained  the  forced  simultaneity  of  key-aetion. 


158 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Flexible  simul- 
taneity of  key- 
action  a  Fell 
invention 


It  is  within  reason  that  a  locking  action  of  that 
character  would  even  defeat  the  speed  of  key- 
action  that  was  possible  on  the  old  "Comptometer," 
since  an  operator  could  overlap  the  key  strokes  in 
that  machine  to  a  certain  extent;  whereas  the 
forced  simultaneity  of  the  cash  register,  if  applied 
to  the  "Comptometer,"  would  prevent  any  overlap- 
ping or  the  depression  of  a  second  key  until  the 
first  depressed  key  returned. 

The  only  simultaneity  of  key-action  that  could 
provide  a  means  of  speeding  up  the  old  "Comp- 
tometer," or  any  machine  of  its  type,  was  a  means 
that  would  leave  key-depression  free  as  to  matter 
of  time;  one  that  would  be  perfectly  flexible  in 
group  manipulation,  offering  a  complete  fluidity  of 
motion  such  as  not  to  hinder  the  fingering  of  the 
operator. 

The  purpose  of  the  mechanical  means  employed 
to  give  simultaneity  in  the  cash  register  was  to 
lock  all  the  keys  depressed  together  and  lock  all 
others  against  depression  until  the  former  re- 
turned. The  purpose  of  mechanical  means  em- 
ployed in  the  Felt  patent  was  to  give  perfect  free- 
dom of  key-action,  whereas  formerly  the  key  man- 
ipulation of  the  old  "Comptometer"  was  restricted 
in  the  freedom  of  key-action,  to  the  extent  of  being 
limited  to  seriatum  action. 

The  above  discussion  has  been  somewhat  elab- 
orately detailed  to  offset  statements  that  simul- 
taneity was  old  in  the  key-driven  Art.  There  is  no 
question  as  to  the  cash-register  type  of  inflexible 
simultaneity  of  action  being  old  before  Felt  pat- 
ented his  flexible  type  of  simultaneity  of  key- 
action  for  a  key-driven  calculating  machine;  but 
any  statement  intended  to  convey  the  idea  that 
Felt's  contribution  of  the  flexible  simultaneity  of 


The  High-Speed  Calculator 


159 


key-action  to  the  Art  was  not  new,  must  come  from 
ignorance  of  the  facts  or  mahce  aforethought. 

This  flexible  keyboard  "Comptometer"  was  given 
the  trade-name  of  "Duplex  Comptometer;"  the 
term  "Duplex"  meaning  that  two  keys  could  be 
depressed,  as  distinguished  from  the  seriatum  one 
at  a  time  key-action  formerly  required.  The  term, 
however,  fell  short  of  setting  forth  the  capacity  of 
such  action,  as  it  was,  in  fact,  not  restricted  to 
mere  duplex-action — it  was  really  a  multiplex  key- 
action  having  no  limit  except  the  lack  of  fingers  on 
the  part  of  the  operator  to  depress  the  keys. 

The  validity  of  these  patents  has  been  sustained 
in  litigation.  The  technical  scope  of  the  mere 
claims  has  been  disputed,  as  patent  claims  some- 
times are;  but  the  broad  newness  and  importance 
of  the  practical  calculative  capacity  achieved  is 
beyond  dispute.  The  recent  machine  called  the 
"Burroughs  Calculator"  has  multiplex  key-action, 
but  it  did  nothing  to  advance  the  practical  capacity 
of  key-driven  calculating  machines. 

The  operation  of  key-driven  machines  has  al- 
ways been  attended  more  or  less  with  a  feeling 
that  a  key-stroke  may  not  have  been  completed, 
especially  by  a  novice  in  operating.  Recognition 
of  the  possibility  of  errors  occurring  through  in- 
complete key-strokes  in  key-driven  adding  mech- 
anism was  first  disclosed  as  early  as  1872  in  the 
Robjohn  patent  (see  page  36),  in  which  a  full- 
stroke  device  is  shown  co-acting  with  the  keys. 

In  the  drawings  it  will  be  noted  that  for  each 
key  there  is  provided  a  ratchet  device  co-operat- 
ing with  the  key  to  compel  a  full-stroke.  This 
scheme,  like  other  similar  later  attempts,  was 
aimed  at  the  prevention  of  an  error  in  the  opera- 


Duplex 
Complomeirr 


I iitroduciiun  of 
full-slroke 
inechan  ism 


160  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


tion  of  adding  mechanism,  but  as  a  means  of  pre- 
vention of  an  error  it  was  lacking,  because  unless 
the  operator  noticed  that  the  key  had  not  returned 
the  next  key  depressed  would,  through  the  action 
of  the  rotor,  pull  the  partly  depressed  key  way 
down  until  it  was  released,  when  it  would  rise 
again,  possibly  without  the  knowledge  of  the  oper- 
ator. There  still  remained  the  fact  that  the  occur- 
rence of  the  error  was  not  made  known  to  the 
operator  until  it  was  too  late  to  correct  it. 
Error  signal  That  Felt  was  Interested  in  the  solution  of 
^  ^"'^  the  problem  for  detection  and  correction  of  the 
errors  in  key-strokes  is  shown  in  the  several 
patents  issued  to  him  on  features  pertaining 
to  this  subject.  After  numerous  experiments 
Felt  came  to. the  conclusion  that  it  was  futile  to 
lock  a  key  in  event  of  a  partial  stroke  and  that  the 
solution  lay  in  the  locking  of  the  keys  in  the  other 
orders  from  that  in  which  the  error  had  been 
made,  thus  signaling  the  operator  and  compelling 
correction  before  further  manipulation  could  be 
accomplished. 

Again  we  find,  as  with  the  simultaneity  of  key- 
action,  that  a  question  may  be  raised  as  to  the 
novelty  of  invention  by  those  who  wish  to  say  that 
there  are  full-stroke  mechanisms  in  the  key-driven 
cash  register  Art  that  lock  the  rest  of  the  key- 
board. But  the  key-locks  disclosed  in  the  cash 
register  were  directed  to  a  continuity  of  stroke 
engroup,  as  distinguished  from  the  individuahsm 
necessary  to  the  key-driven  calculator. 

The  mechanical  means  employed,  of  course, 
varied  greatly  from  that  which  would  be  of  any 
value  in  the  calculating  machine  Art,  and  the  theo- 
retical scheme  was  aimed  at  a  widely  different  re- 
sult. Flexibility  was  necessary. 


The  High-Speed  Calculator 


161 


The  feature  sought  by  Felt  for  his  calculator 
was  a  signal  to  the  operator  that  an  error  had 
been  made — if  an  error  should  occur — and  to 
block  the  operation  of  any  of  the  other  orders  until 
the  error  was  corrected.  This  he  accomplished  by 
causing  all  the  other  orders  to  be  locked  against 
manipulation,  through  the  occurrence  of  an  error 
in  a  key-stroke;  thus  preventing  manipulation 
of  another  order  until  the  error  was  corrected. 

Now  it  may  be  said  that  the  locking  of  other 
orders  was  old  in  the  cash  register;  but  let  us 
analyze  the  scheme  and  action  of  both.  The  de- 
pression of  a  key  of  the  key-driven  cash  register 
immediately  locked  all  other  keys  not  depressed, 
and  retained  such  locking-action  during  depres- 
sion and  until  the  complete  return  of  such  key- 
depression;  thus  the  keyboard  was  locked,  error 
or  no  error. 

A  correct  depression  of  a  key  in  Felt's  new  in- 
vention, as  applied  to  key-driven  calculators,  does 
not  lock  the  rest  of  the  keys.  In  fact,  no  key  of 
Felt's  invention  is  locked  until  an  error  occurs. 

The  lock  of  the  key-driven  cash  register  is  a 
lock  that  takes  effect  without  an  error  having 
occurred — one  that  is  always  present  with  respect 
to  the  keys  not  depressed  simultaneously,  and  a 
feature  designed  to  force  simultaneity  of  group 
key-action  to  prevent,  as  before  explained,  dis- 
honesty. 

The  lock  of  the  key-driven  calculator  inventions 
referred  to  are  in  no  way  connected  with  simul- 
taneous key-action — as  in  the  cash  register — and 
never  act  to  lock  the  other  orders  except  when 
there  is  an  error  in  a  key-stroke.  As  the  writer 
has  explained  respecting  the  simultaneous  feature 


lacking  of  the 
other  orders  by  a 
xhort  kev-stroke 


Inactive  keys    . 
locked  during 
properkey-aclion 
in  cash  register 


Inactive  keys  not 
locked  during 
proper  key-action 
in  ''Compto- 
meter'' 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


of  the  cash  register,  the  locking  of  the  other  orders 
in  the  cash  register  interfered  with  the  flexibility 
of  the  key-action  and  for  that  reason  would  be 
impossible  in  a  key-driven  calculator,  where  rapid 
manipulation  is  dependent  on  flexibility. 

The  scheme  of  the  new  key-driven  calculator  in- 
ventions referred  to,  were  designed  to  allow  per- 
fect freedom  of  individual  key-action  and  to  block 
such  action  only  when  an  error  in  any  individual 
key-stroke  should  be  made.  There  is  nothing  in 
common  in  the  two  schemes.  The  time,  purpose 
and  mechanical  means  employed  differ  entirely. 
'Controlled-kev  This  new  idea  of  Felt's  is  embodied  in  what  is 
omp  me  er  commercially  known  as  the  "Controlled-key  Duplex 
Comptometer."  The  term  "Controlled-key"  was 
coined  to  fit  this  broadly  new  combination,  but  a 
word  coined  to  fit  the  functions  of  a  new  mechan- 
ism is  seldom  enough  to  convey  a  complete  under- 
standing of  its  true  qualities. 

Aside  from  the  broad  newness  of  the  Felt  "Con- 
trolled-key"  feature  referred  to,  even  the  mechan- 
ical means  for  safeguarding  the  individual  key- 
action  was  new  in  its  application  as  a  full-stroke 
device.  The  means  employed  operated  directly  on 
the  accumulator  mechanism,  locking  it  against 
registration  until  the  error  was  corrected,  which 
diff"ered  greatly  from  the  devices  applied  to  the 
keys  or  actuators  designed  by  others  to  bring 
about  a  similar  result.  But  the  locking  of  all  the 
other  orders  of  mechanism,  through  any  key-action 
short  of  a  full  stroke,  as  a  signal  or  error,  has  no 
mechanical  equivalent  or  simile  in  the  Art. 


The  Improved  Recorder 

SINCE  the  general  installation  of  the  record- 
ing-adder by  the  banks,  the  minds  of  "get- 
rich-quick"  inventors  have  been  turned  to- 
ward this  type  of  machine.  The  result  has  been 
that  a  vast  number  of  patents  on  such  machines 
were  issued,  a  large  proportion  of  which  represent 
worthless  and  impossible  mechanism  purported  by 
their  inventors  to  contain  improvements  on  the 
Art.  Some  of  these  patents  on  alleged  improve- 
ments describe  and  purport  to  contain  features, 
that,  if  really  made  operative  in  an  operative  ma- 
chine, would  be  useful  to  the  public.  But  as  inven- 
tions, they  merely  illustrate  the  conceptions  of  a 
new  and  useful  feature  that  can  never  be  of  use  to 
anyone  until  put  into  concrete  operative  form. 

To  describe  these  features  would  be  useless,  as 
they  have  not  advanced  the  Art ;  they  merely  act 
to  retard  its  advancement  through  the  patent 
rights  that  are  granted  on  the  hatched-up  inoper- 
ative devices  or  mechanism  purported  to  hold  such 
features.  " 

Of  the  vast  number  of  patents  issued,  but  few 
of  the  machines  represented  therein  have  ever 
reached  the  market,  and  of  these  machines,  except 
those  previously  mentioned,  there  is  little  that 
may  be  said  respecting  new  elementary  features 
that  may  be  called  an  advancement  of  the  Art.  It 
is  to  be  expected,  of  course,  that  the  manufacturer 
of  such  machines  will  not  hold  the  same  opinion  as 
the  writer  on  this  subject.    But  the  fact  that  the 


The  mass  of 
recorder  inven- 
tions patented 


Bid  few  of  the 
recorder  patents 
of  value 


HYS 


164 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Reserve  inven- 
tion as  good 
insurance 


Erroneous 
advertising 


generic  principles  of  recording  the  items  and  totals 
were  worked  out  before  they  even  thought  of  con- 
structing such  a  machine  leaves  little  chance  for 
anything  but  specific  features  of  construction  for 
them  to  make  that  may  be  considered  new. 

Another  feature  to  be  considered  in  this  line  is 
that  while  these  new  manufacturers  were  work- 
ing out  the  "kinks"  or  fine  adjustments,  which  can 
only  be  determined  after  a  considerable  number 
of  machines  have  been  put  into  service,  the  older 
manufacturers  were  working  or  had  worked  out 
and  held  in  reserve  new  improvements  that  were 
not  obvious  to  those  new  at  the  game. 

It  is  quite  common  for  manufacturers  to  have 
a  reserved  stock  of  improved  features  to  draw 
from.  In  fact,  such  a  stock  is  sometimes  the  best 
insurance  they  have  against  being  run  out  of  busi- 
ness by  a  competitor  who  places  a  machine  on  the 
market  to  undersell  them.  Of  course,  all  manufac- 
turers believe  they  purvey  the  best  and  advise  the 
public  relative  to  this  point  in  their  advertise- 
ments. 

One  manufacturer  of  a  recording-adder,  a  much 
later  invention  than  either  the  Felt  or  Burroughs 
recorder,  circulated  some  advertising  pamphlets 
once  which  contained  a  statement  that  their  ma- 
chine was  the  first  visible  recorder.  A  reproduc- 
tion of  this  pamphlet  is  shown  on  the  opposite 
page.  The  reader  will  at  once  recognize  the  error 
in  such  a  statement,  as  the  first  Felt  recorder  was 
a  visible  printer. 

The  statement  seems  extremely  peculiar  after 
paying  tribute  to  Felt  as  the  pioneer  in  the  Art  of 
adding  machines.  One  would  suppose  that  having 
knowledge  enough  of  the  Art  to  offer  such  trib- 


:S         I  1  ;  ,  ^  ' 


5^:S;:u|:=i..1".S5i 


1 : 1 : :  =  1 1  •  ^  t :  :^ 
.  s  ■!  I J  ?  - ::  °  -c  I  =  , : 


jll*il^!l^iiii!=i  =  '«''^^ 


lilt' 


~  i  .1  i  I 


El  i  i  =f.J  s  1; 


2'  I  s  I  " 

11 


1:^1 


ills  I 


-ilili^nn^hlrlllrfi^l^nl 


t 


'l"\v.)  Pages  from  I^ooklct  Issued  h 
Wales  Addiii-  .Ma.-hine  Co. 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Error  key 


Sub-fo(al 


Repeat  key 


Locked  key- 
board 


Quick  paper 
return 


ute  would  have  left  them  better  advised  on  the 
subject  of  visible  recording. 

The  first  of  the  later  improvements  in  the  key- 
set crank-operated  recorder  were  made  by  Bur- 
roughs and  consisted  of  the  features  which  formed 
a  part  of  Burroughs  patent  No.  504,963  of  1893.  One 
of  these  features  consisted  of  means  provided  in  the 
shape  of  a  special  key  that  when  depressed  would 
clear  the  key-setting,  thus  allowing  of  an  erroneous 
key-setting  to  be  corrected  by  clearing  and  reset- 
ting the  correct  item. 

Another  feature  was  provision  for  printing  a 
total  at  any  time  without  clearing  the  machine, 
thus  allowing  printing  of  what  may  be  called  a 
sub-total,  while  the  grand  total  is  carried  on  to  be 
printed  later. 

The  third  feature  consisted  of  means  for  repeated 
addition  and  recording  of  the  same  item.  The  means 
provided  consisted  of  a  key,  which,  if  depressed 
after  setting  an  item  on  the  keys,  would  prevent  the 
keys  from  being  cleared;  thus  by  repeated  opera- 
tion of  the  hand-crank  the  item  set  up  would  be 
printed  and  added  repeatedly. 

The  next  feature  was  one  of  construction,  as  it 
was  designed  to  overcome  the  possibility  of  the 
setting  of  two  keys  in  the  same  order,  by  locking 
all  the  other  keys  in  that  order.  The  invention  was 
shown  applied  to  the  Burroughs  machine,  but  was 
applied  for  by  Wm.  H.  Pike,  Jr.,  and  was  issued 
January  13,  1898. 

In  1900  Felt  perfected  a  quick  paper  return  for 
his  wide  paper-carriage  and  applied  for  a  patent, 
which  was  issued  March  11,  1902,  the  number  of 
which  is  694,955.  The  feature  was,  that  by  oper- 
ating a  lever,  it  served  to  return  the  paper  after 
recording  a  column  of  items  and  automatically 


The  Improved  Kecokder  167 


shifted  the  carriage  ready  for  the  recording  of 
another  cohimn  of  items,  thus  facilitating  speedy 
operation. 

In  March,  1902,  a  patent  was  allowed  Felt  on  I'aper  slop 
means  to  lock  the  mechanism  in  a  recorder  when 
the  paper  was  about  to  run  out  of  the  rolls ;  a  fea- 
ture which,  in  tabulating,  served  as  a  check  against 
the  paper  running  out  of  the  rolls  and  prevented 
further  operation  until  the  paper  was  shifted  to 
commence  a  new  column  of  items,  thus  insuring 
the  printing  of  each  record  on  the  paper  which 
formerly  depended  upon  the  vigilance  of  the 
operator. 

The  next  feature  in  the  recording  machine  Art  ( ross  tabulatiny 
which  shows  a  new  operative  feature,  that  may  be 
considered  an  improvement,  is  cross-tabulating.  It 
consisted  of  means  for  horizontal  tabulating  or 
recording  across  a  sheet  of  paper  as  well  as  in 
vertical  columns.  While  this  feature  was  for 
special  use,  it  served  to  broaden  the  usefulness  of 
the  recorder  in  bringing  together  classified  bal- 
ances by  dates  with  cross-added  totals,  and  many 
other  similar  uses.  This  feature  was  the  invention 
of  D.  E.  Felt,  who  applied  for  a  patent  April  29, 
1901,  which  was  issued  October  21,  1902;  the 
patent  number  is  711,407. 

Another  special  feature  serving  to  broaden  the  / , ,,  .  .„ 
usefulness  of  the  recording-adder  was  invented  by 
Felt,  and  may  be  found  in  patent  No.  780,272,  ap- 
plied for  March  30,  1901,  and  issued  January  17, 
1905.  This  feature  was  a  device  which  controlled 
the  printing  of  a  predetermined  number  of  items 
which  could  be  set  by  the  operator,  and  which, 
when  the  predetermined  number  had  been  printed, 
would  lock  the  mechanism  against  further  action 
until  the  paper  was  shifted  to  print  a  new  column. 


168 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Distinguishing 
marks  for  clear, 
totals  and  sub- 
totals 


Motor  drive  Prior  to  May  9,  1901,  there  is  no  record  of  any 
recording-adder  having  been  operated  by  electric 
motor  drive.  But  on  that  date  Frank  C.  Rinche 
applied  for  a  patent  showing  such  a  combination 
with  the  recorder,  which  became  commercially 
known  as  the  Universal  Accountant.  The  patent, 
No.  726.803,  was  issued  April  28,  1903,  and  is  the 
first  of  a  series  issued  to  Rinche  on  various  com- 
binations of  mechanical  driving  connections. 

A  feature  common  to  recording  of  added  columns 
of  numerical  items  is  the  distinguishing  characters 
for  clear,  sub-totals  and  totals  by  the  use  of  letters, 
stars  and  other  marks.  The  first  patent  on  any- 
thing of  this  nature  that  has  come  into  general 
use  was  applied  for  June  9,  1903,  by  A.  Macauley, 
and  was  issued  June  12,  1906.  This  patent  is  No. 
823,474,  and  shown  connected  with  the  Burroughs 
recorder  to  register  with  a  star  when  the  first  item 
is  printed  if  the  machine  is  clear  and  when  a  total 
is  printing.  Provision  was  also  made  for  printing 
an  S  when  a  sub-total  was  printed. 
Adding  cut-out  The  use  of  recording-adders  is  often  applied 
when  it  is  desired  to  record  dates  along  with  tabu- 
lating added  columns  of  recorded  items.  Of  course 
there  is  no  use  of  adding  the  dates  together,  and 
again  if  they  were  allowed  to  be  added  to  the 
totals  an  erroneous  total  of  the  columns  added  may 
result  under  certain  conditions.  Means  for  auto- 
matically cutting  out  additions  at  certain  positions 
of  the  paper  carriage  in  cross-line  tabulating  was 
devised  by  H.  C.  Peters,  and  a  patent  showing 
such  combination  operative  on  the  Burroughs  re- 
corder was  applied  for  by  him  May  12,  1904.  The 
patent.  No.  1,028,133,  was  issued  June  4,  1912. 


The  Improved  Recorder 


With  the  introduction  of  the  key-set  crank-oper- 
ated feature  on  the  Felt  Comptometer,  the  key 
action,  Hke  in  the  Burroughs  recorder,  became  a 
feature  to  be  considered ;  but  unlike  the  organism 
of  the  Burroughs,  the  Felt  construction  allowed 
of  the  use  of  a  self-correcting  keyboard  without 
the  possibility  of  error  occurring  from  its  use. 
This  feature  is  shown  in  a  patent  issued  to  Felt  & 
Wetmore  applied  for  December  27,  1904,  and 
issued  May  14, 1907.  The  patent  number  is  853,543, 
and  provides  a  means  of  correcting  errors  made  in 
setting  the  keys  by  merely  depressing  the  proper 
key  or  keys,  which  will  release  any  previously  set 
in  the  respective  orders. 

In  some  classes  of  recording  it  is  desirable  to  print 
more  than  one  column  of  items  without  shifting 
the  paper  carriage  laterally.  A  means  providing 
for  such  an  emergency  is  shown  in  patent  No. 
825,205,  issued  to  C.  W.  Gooch  July  3,  1906.  The 
patent  was  applied  for  December  2, 1905,  and  shows 
a  means  applicable  to  any  order  that  may  intercept 
the  printing  of  the  ciphers  in  that  order,  and  there- 
by the  ciphers  in  all  other  orders  to  the  right  from 
any  key  depression  to  the  left  of  such  order.  This 
made  what  has  been  generally  known  as  the  split 
keyboard,  but  differs  from  that  now  in  general  use 
in  that  it  was  set  to  certain  orders  and  not  selec- 
tive at  the  will  of  the  operator. 

With  the  coming  of  the  motor-operated  record- 
ing-adders, the  extra  time  allowed  the  operator, 
through  being  relieved  of  having  to  work  the  crank 
back  and  forth,  left  a  lapse  of  time  until  the  motor 
finished  its  cranking  of  the  machine.  In  other 
words,  there  could  be  no  gain  in  the  speed  of 
operation  because  it  took  as  much  time  for  the 


Self-correcting 
keyboard 


Split  keyboard 


Dual  action  key- 
board 


170  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


motor  to  operate  the  machine  as  it  did  by  human 
power.  In  a  patent  granted  to  McFarland,  No. 
895,664,  applied  for  October  19,  1905,  is  shown  a 
means  for  utilizing  the  lapse  of  time  which  the 
operator  was  formerly  obliged  to  lose  while  wait- 
ing for  the  motor  to  finish  its  operation  of  crank- 
ing the  machine.  It  is  shown  in  combination  with 
the  keyboard  of  the  Pike  recorder  and  consists  of 
a  change  that  allows  the  keys  for  the  next  item 
to  be  set  while  the  motor  is  cranking  the  machine 
to  print  and  add  the  item  previously  set,  thus  util- 
izing the  time  formerly  lost. 
Non-add  signal  In  adding  and  recording  columns  of  figures,  it 
quite  often  happens  that  it  is  desirable  to  print 
a  number  without  adding  it  into  the  total,  which 
may  be  accomplished  in  general  by  depressing  the 
non-add  key  or  knob,  or  what  may  be  supplied  for 
that  purpose.  These  numbers,  however,  were  not 
provided  with  any  means  by  which  they  could  be 
distinguished  from  those  added  into  the  total  until 
Jesse  G.  Vincent  conceived  the  idea  of  printing  a 
distinguishing  mark  beside  them  to  designate  that 
they  were  mere  numbers  not  added  to  the  total. 
The  means  for  accomplishing  this  feature  is  shown 
in  patent  No.  1,043,883,  applied  for  September  24, 

1906,  and  issued  November  12,  1912. 
Selective  spiu  A  new  improvement  in  the  split  keyboard  for- 
merly devised  by  C.  W.  Gooch  is  shown  in  a  patent 
issued  to  Wetmore  &  Niemann  applied  to  the  Felt 
"Comptograph."  This  improvement  consists  of  a 
selective  device  for  splitting  the  keyboard  into 
four  different  combinations  selective  to  any  com- 
bination.   The  patent  was  applied  for  April  24, 

1907,  and  issued  February  2,  1915 ;  the  number  is 
1,127,332. 


keyboard 


The  Improved  Recokder  171 


In  some  classes  of  recording  it  is  desirable  at  seU-ciirr  [iriniiny 
times  to  cut  out  the  printing  of  some  of  the  orders 
and  in  others  the  whole  of  the  printing  mechanism. 
Mr.  Fred  A.  Niemann  patented  a  means  for  such 
a  contingency.  The  patent  was  applied  for  April 
24,  1907,  but  was  not  issued  until  March  9,  1920. 
The  leavure  was  shown  applied  to  the  Felt  Comp- 
tograph  for  tabulating  or  printing  vertically  a 
series  of  added  and  footed  columns  of  figures. 

It  is  sometimes  desirable  to  print  the  sum  of  all  'irond  loiuUzcr 
the  totals  of  the  footed  columns  or  what  may  be 
called  a  grand  total.  William  E.  Swalm,  in  patent 
No.  885,202,  applied  for  October  24,  1907,  and 
issued  April  21,  1908,  shows  how  this  feature  may 
be  accomplished  on  the  Burroughs  recorder.  It 
consisted  of  an  extra  series  of  accumulator  wheels 
that  could  be  meshed  with  the  regular  accumula- 
tor wheels,  and  thus  receive  actuation  resulting  in 
accumulation,  the  same  as  the  regular  wheels. 
When,  however,  the  regular  wheels  are  zeroized  in 
printing  the  individual  totals,  the  extra  accumu- 
lator wheels  are  left  out  of  mesh.  Thus  the  grand 
totals  are  accumulated.  The  printing  of  the  grand 
total  is  accomplished  by  the  meshing  of  the  grand 
total  wheels  with  the  regular  and  the  usual  opera- 
tion of  taking  a  regular  total.  The  regular  wheels, 
however,  must  be  cleared  first. 

The  shuttle  carriage,  a  means  devised  to  print  Miernaie'cmss 
two  columns  of  figures  by  printing  a  number  in  /"'"''"'f' 
one  column  and  a  sum  in  the  other  by  alternate 
action,  was  the  conception  of  Clyde  E.  Gardner, 
and  is  shown  applied  to  the  carriage  of  the  Pike 
recorder  in  patent  No.  1,052,811  of  February  11, 
1913.  The  patent  was  applied  for  September  24, 
1908,  and  consists  of  means  for  automatically 
shifting  the  carriage  back  and  forth. 


172 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Determinale 
Hem  signal 


Subtraction  by 
reverse  action 


Selective  split  for 
keyboard 


Rapid  paper  in- 
sert and  ejector 


Another  means  than  that  invented  by  Felt  to 
signal  the  operator  when  a  predetermined  number 
of  items  have  been  recorded,  consists  of  a  bell, 
which  rings  to  notify  the  operator  to  that  effect. 
This  signal  was  the  invention  of  J.  G.  Vincent,  and 
is  shown  in  patent  No.  968,005  of  August  23,  1910, 
and  was  applied  for  December  3,  1909,  as  an  at- 
tachment to  the  carriage  of  the  Burroughs  machine. 

Although  subtraction  has  always  been  accom- 
plished on  this  type  of  machine  as  a  means  of 
correcting  an  error,  it  was  always  accomplished 
on  the  Burroughs  recorder  by  the  use  of  what  is 
generally  known  as  the  complimental  method, 
which,  without  special  provision,  is  rather  objec- 
tionable. On  the  22d  of  April,  1910,  Wm.  E. 
Swalm  applied  for  a  patent  which  was  issued  June 
4,  which  shows  means  connected  with  the  Bur- 
roughs machine  that  allowed  subtraction  to  be 
made  by  the  direct  method  by  setting  the  keys 
the  same  as  for  addition.  The  patent  number  is 
1,028,149. 

A  further  improvement  on  the  split  keyboard 
feature  is  shown  in  a  patent  issued  to  Fred  A. 
Niemann  in  which  is  shown  an  individually  selective 
cipher  cut-out  that  splits  the  keyboard  into  any 
combination  at  the  will  of  the  operator.  The  said 
patent  is  No.  1,309,692,  applied  for  October  7, 
1912,  and  issued  July  15,  1919,  and  shows  the  im- 
provement in  combination  with  the  Felt  "Compto- 
graph." 

In  some  classes  of  listing  or  tabulating  it  is 
an  advantage  to  enter  the  paper  and  eject  it  with 
a  rapidity  that  will  facilitate  the  handling  of  a 
large  number  of  sheets,  such  for  instance  as  the 
usual  bank  statements.    In  patent  No.  1,208,375 


The  Impkoved  Recorder  173 


F.  C.  Rinche  shows  how  he  accomplished  this  fea- 
ture on  the  Burroughs  recorder.  The  patent  was 
appHed  for  July  21,  1913,  and  issued  December  12, 
1916. 

Of  the  named  improvements,  of  course,  all  are 
designed  to  fit  the  requirements  of  the  machines 
they  are  shown  as  a  part  of  in  the  drawings  of  the 
patent.  They  are  also  claimed  as  adaptable  to 
other  machines  of  the  type,  but  some  are  so  spe- 
cific to  the  machine  they  form  an  improvement  on 
that  they  are  not  adaptable  to  other  makes.  Again 
some  give  results  on  the  machine  they  form  a  part 
of  that  was  accomplished  in  a  different  way  in 
another  make. 

Most  of  the  improvements  named,  however,  are 
of  such  a  nature  that  the  broad  feature  disclosed 
is  adaptable  to  all  makes  if  mechanism  should  be 
specially  designed  to  suit  such  machines  that  will 
function  to  give  the  result. 


Combinations 


K 


The  Bookkeeping  and  Billing 
Machine 
N  outgrowth  of   the  recording-machine   Art 
is  represented  in  a  new  type  of  recording 
machine  especially  adapted  to  bookkeeping 
and  the  making  out  of  invoices  or  reports  where 
typewriting  combined  with  arithmetical  recording 
is  necessary.  This  class  of  work  demands  a  com- 
bination of  the  typewriter  with  adding  and  multi- 
plying mechanism,  having  a  capacity  for  printing 
the  totals  of  either  addition  or  multiplication. 
Early  Several  attempts  have  been  made  to  combine 

the  typewriter  and  adding-recorder ;  and  there 
have  been  combinations  of  multiplying  and  re- 
cording. Another  combination  that  has  been  used 
to  some  extent  for  bookkeeping  and  billing  is  an 
adding  attachment  for  typewriters,  but  all  these 
combinations  were  Jacking  in  one  feature  or 
another  of  what  may  be  called  a  real  bookkeeping 
machine  and  billing  machine. 

The  combination  of  the  typewriter  and  multiple- 
order  keyboard  recording-adders  was  too  cumber- 
some, and  the  means  employed  for  multiplication 
on  such  machines  required  too  many  manipulative 
motions  from  the  operator.  In  simple  cases  of  mul- 
tiplication as  high  as  fifty  manipulative  motions 
would  be  required  to  perform  an  example  on  such 
a  machine. 

The  combination  of  multiplying  mechanism, 
either   direct   or  by   repeated   stroke,   with   the 

174 


••M,,oii-Il(.pkins"  Hillin-  and  H.x.kkcepuifi 
Machine 


The  Bookkeeping  and  Billing  Machine  177 


multiple  keyboard  has  been  made,  but  without 
the  typewriting  feature  they  do  not  serve  as  a  real 
bookkeeping  and  billing  machine. 

The  combination  of  the  typewriter  and  the  add- 
ing attachment  lacks  automatic  means  to  print 
totals.  The  operator  must  read  the  totals  and  print 
them  with  the  typewriter.  Multiplication  on  such 
a  combination  is,  of  course,  out  of  the  question. 

The  culmination  of  the  quest  for  a  practical  First 
bookkeeping  machine  is  a  peculiar  one,  as  it  was  Comhinalion 
dependent  upon  the  ten-key  recorder,  which  has 
never  become  as  popular  as  the  multiple-order  key- 
board on  account  of  its  limited  capacity.  The  sim- 
plicity of  its  keyboard,  however,  lent  to  its  combi- 
nation with  the  typewriter,  and  the  application  of 
direct  multiplication  removed  a  large  per  cent  of 
the  limitation  which  formerly  stood  as  an  objec- 
tion to  this  class  of  machine  when  multiplication 
becomes  necessary. 

For  the  combination,  which  finally  produced  the 
desired  result,  we  must  thank  Mr.  Hubert  Hop- 
kins, who  is  not  only  the  patentee  of  such  a  com- 
bination, but  also  the  inventor  of  the  first  practical 
ten-key  recording-adder  which  has  become  com- 
mercially known  as  the  "Dalton"  machine. 

His  bookkeeping  machine  is  commercially  known     Moon-Hopkins 
as  the  "Moon-Hopkins  Billing  Machine."  See  illus-     \iachine 
tration  on  opposite  page. 

The  term  "Bookkeeping  Machine"  has  been  mis- 
used by  applying  it  to  machines  which  only  per- 
form some  of  the  functions  of  bookkeeping. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  go  into  the  history  of  the 
Hopkins  Bookkeeping  Machine  to  show  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  Art  relative  to  this  class  of  machines, 
as  the  features  that  have  made  such  a  machine 
practical  were  developed  by  Hopkins  himself,  and 


The  principle  of  "  Xapier's  Bones  "  may  be  easily  explained  by  imagining 
ten  rectangular  slips  of  cardboard,  each  divided  into  nine  squares.  In  the 
top  squares  of  the  slips  the  ten  digits  are  written,  and  each  slip  contams  in 
its  nine  squares  the  first  nine  multiples  of  the  digit  which  apfK^ars  in  the  top 
square.  '\Vith  the  exception  of  the  top  square,  every  sq\iare  is  divided  into 
parts  by  a  diagonal,  the  units  being  written  on  one  side  and  the  tens  on  the 
other,  so  that  when  a  multiple  consists  of  two  figures  they  are  separated  by 
the  diagonal.  Fig.  i  shows  the  slips  corresponding  to  the  numbers  2,  o,  8,  5, 
placed  side  by  side  in  contact  with  one  another,  and  next  to  them  is  placed 
another  slip  containing,  in  squares  without  diagonals,  the  first  nine  digits. 
The  slips  thus  placed  in  contact  give  the  multiples  of  the  number  2085,  the 
digits  in  each  parallelogram  being  added  together  ;  for  example,  correspond- 
ing to  tlie  number  6  on  the  right-hand  slip  we  have  0,  8+3,  0+4,  2,  i  ,  whence 
we  find  0,  I,  5,  2,  I  as  the  digits,  written  backwards,  of  6x2085.  The  use 
of  the  slips  for  the  purpose  of  multiplication  is  now  evident ,  thus,  to  multiply 
2085  by  736  we  take  out  in  this  manner  the  multiples  corresponding  to 
6,  3.  7  and  set  down  the  digits  as  they  are  obtained,  from  right  to  left, 
shifting  them  back  one  place  and  adding  up  the  columns  as  in  ordinary 
multiplication,  viz.,  the  figures  as  written  down  are 

12510 
6255 
14595 


1534560 

Napier's  rods  or  bones  consist  of  ten  oblong  pieces  of  wood  or  other 
material  with  square  ends.  Each  of  the  four  faces  of  each  rod  contains 
multiples  of  one  of  the  nine  digits,  and  is  similar  to  one  of  the  slips  just  de- 
scribed, the  first  rod  containing  the  multiples  of  o,  i,  9,  8,  the  second  of 
0,  2.  9,  7,  the  third  of  o,  3,  9,  6,  the  fourth  of  0,  4,  9,  5,  the  fifth  of  i,  2,  8,  7, 
the  sixth  of  i,  3,  8,  6,  the  seventh  of  i,  4,  8,  5,  the  eighth  of  2,  3,  7,  6,  the 
ninth  of  2,  4,  7,  5,  and  the  tenth  of  3,  4,  6,  5.     Each  rod,  therefore,  contains 


2 

0      8 

5 

1 

A 

A'A 

'A 

2 

A 

A 

A 

A 

3 

/< 

/o 

A 

A 

4 

Vo 

/o 

A 

A 

5 

'A 

A 

A 

A 

6 

A 

A 

A 

A 

7 

yi 

^% 

A 

A. 

8 

/■» 

A 

A 

A 

9 

/ 

2 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

/s 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

8 

I 

Fig.  I.  Fig.  2. 

on  two  of  its  faces  multiples  of  digits  which  are  complementary  to  those  on  the 
other  two  faces  ;  and  the  multiples  of  a  digit  and  its  complement  are  reversed 
in  position.  The  arrangements  of  the  numbers  on  the  rods  will  be  evident 
from  fig.  2,  which  represents  the  four  faces  of  the  fifth  bar.  The  set  of  ten 
rods  is  thus  equualent  to  four  sets  of  slips  as  described  above. 


Xapier's  Bones 
From  Xapier  Tercentenary  Celebration  Handbook 


^^ 


& 


'mfmm.^^ffmmmm^ 


k)  t 


i    Q 


From  Drawings  of  Barbour  Patent  No.  130,404 


The  Bookkekpixg  and  Billing  Machine 


181 


at  the  present  date  there  is  none  to  dispute  the 
title  since  his  is  the  only  machine  having  the  re- 
quired combination  referred  to.  The  scheme  used 
by  Hopkins  for  multiplication  in  his  billing  ma- 
chine is,  as  stated,  direct  multiplication  or  that  of 
adding  the  multiples  of  digits  directly  to  the  accu- 
mulator numeral  wheels  instead  of  pumping  it  into 
the  accumulator  wheels  by  repeated  addition  of 
the  digits  as  is  more  commonly  used. 

The  direct  method  of  multiplying  is  old,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  first  mechanical  means  em- 
ployed for  multiplying  worked  by  the  direct 
method.  But  its  combination  with  recording  and 
typewriter  mechanism  invented  by  Hopkins  was 
new. 

Napier,  in  1620,  laid  the  foundation  of  the  me- 
chanical method  of  direct  multiplication  when  he 
invented  his  multiplying  bones.  The  scheme  of 
overlapping  the  ordinal  places  is  shown  in  the 
diagonal  lines  used  to  separate  units  from  the  tens 
in  each  multiple  of  the  nine  digits  (see  illustra- 
tion, page  179),  thus  providing  a  convenient  means 
by  which  the  ordinal  values  may  be  added  together. 

The  first  attempt  to  set  Napier's  scheme  to  me- 
chanism that  would  add  and  register  the  overlap- 
ping ordinal  values  was  patented  by  E.  D.  Barbour 
in  1872.  See  reproduction  of  patent  drawings  on 
opposite  page. 

The  Barbour  ]\Iultiplier 

The  accumulator  mechanism  of  the  Barbour 
machine,  including  the  numeral  wheels  and  their 
devices  for  transferring  the  tens,  is  mounted  in  a 
sliding  carriage  at  the  top  of  the  machine  (see 
Fig.  1),  which  may  be  operated  by  the  hand-knob. 

Extending  through  the  bottom  of  the  carriage 
are  a  series  of  pinions,  one  for  each  ordinal  nu- 


Napier's  bones 
first  direct  mul- 
tiplier 


First  direct  mul- 
tiplying machine 


^ 


Joliri  \H|)i(T 


182 


Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Description 
of  Barbour 
Multiplier 


meral  wheel,  and  connected  thereto  by  a  ratchet 
and  pawl  action.  The  pinions  are  each  so  arranged 
as  to  be  operative  with  a  gear  rack  beneath  the 
carriage  when  the  carriage  is  slid  back  and  forth. 

Thus  the  wheels  received  action  from  one  direc- 
tion of  the  motion  of  the  carriage  and  remain  idle 
during  the  movement  in  the  other  direction.  The 
degree  of  motion  so  received  would,  of  course,  de- 
pend upon  the  number  of  teeth  in  the  racks  below 
encountered  by  the  pinions. 

The  gear  racks  employed  by  Barbour  were  nu- 
merous, one  being  provided  for  each  multiple  of 
the  nine  digits,  arranged  in  groups  constituting 
nine  sets  mounted  on  the  drums  marked  B  (see 
Fig.  4) .  Each  of  these  sets  contain  nine  mutilated 
gear  racks,  the  arrangement  of  the  teeth  of  which 
serve  as  the  multiples  of  the  digit  they  represent. 

The  teeth  of  the  racks  representing  the  mul- 
tiples of  the  digits  were  arranged  in  groups  of 
units  and  tens.  For  instance:  4x6=24,  the  rack 
representing  the  multiple  of  4x6  would  have  two 
gear  teeth  in  the  tens  place  and  four  gear  teeth  in 
the  units  place,  and  likewise  for  the  eighty  other 
combinations. 

Adding  the  multiples  of  the  digits  by  overlap- 
ping the  orders  was  accomplished  by  a  very  simple 
means,  the  arrangement  of  the  racks  being  such 
that  as  the  carriage  was  moved  from  left  to  right 
the  numeral  wheel  pinions  would  move  over  the 
units  rack  teeth  of  a  multiplying  rack  of  one  order 
and  the  tens  rack  teeth  of  a  multiplying  rack  in 
the  next  lower  order. 

By  close  examination  the  reader  will  note  from 
the  drawings  that  the  lower  one  of  the  sets  of 
multiplying  gear  racks  shown  on  the  drum  B,  to 


The  Bookkeeping  and  Billing  Machine  183 


the  left  in  Fig.  4,  is  the  series  of  one  times  the  nine 
digits,  the  next  set  or  series  of  racks  above  are  the 
multiplying  racks  for  the  multiples  of  two,  the 
lowest  rack  in  that  series  having  but  two  teeth, 
the  next  higher  rack  four  teeth,  the  next  rack  six 
and  the  next  eight. 

So  far  no  multiple  of  two  has  amounted  to  more 
than  a  units  ordinal  place,  therefore  these  racks 
operate  on  a  lower-order  numeral  wheel,  and  are 
all  placed  to  the  right  of  the  center  on  the  drum  B, 
but  the  next  rack  above  for  adding  the  multiple  of 
two  times  five  requires  that  one  shall  be  added  to 
a  higher  order,  and  is  therefore  placed  on  the  left 
side  of  the  center  of  the  drum. 

Thus  it  will  be  noted  that  by  reading  the  num- 
ber of  teeth  on  the  right  of  each  rack  as  units  and 
those  on  the  left  as  tens,  that  running  anti-clock- 
wise around  the  drum,  each  series  of  multiplying 
racks  show  multiples  of  the  digits  from  one  to 
four,  it  being  obvious  that  the  racks  for  adding  the 
multiples  of  the  higher  digits  are  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  drums. 

From  the  layout  of  the  racks  it  is  also  obvious 
that  the  starting  or  normal  position  of  the  car- 
riage would  be  with  the  numeral  wheel  pinions  of 
each  order  in  the  center  of  each  drum,  so  that  as 
the  carriage  is  moved  to  the  right  the  units  wheel 
will  receive  movement  from  the  units  teeth  of  the 
rack  on  the  units  drum,  while  the  tens  wheel  will 
receive  movement  from  the  units  teeth  of  the 
tens  drum  and  the  tens  teeth  of  the  units  drum, 
and  so  on  with  the  higher  wheels,  as  each  numeral 
wheel  pinion  except  the  units  passes  from  the 
center  of  one  drum  to  the  center  of  the  next  lower 
and  engages  such  teeth  as  may  be  presented. 


184  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Each  of  the  drums  B  are  independently  mounted 
on  the  pivot  shaft  C,  and  are  provided  with  the 
hand-operating  setting-racks  I  and  E,  co-acting 
with  the  gears  R  and  D,  to  help  in  bringing  the 
proper  racks  into  engageable  positions  with  the 
pinions  of  the  accumulator  numeral  or  total  wheels. 

The  hand-knob  G,  Fig.  4,  and  the  gears  f,  fast 
to  a  common  shaft,  furnish  a  means  for  operating 
the  whole  series  of  drums  when  the  right  multiple 
series  of  racks  of  each  drum  have  been  brought 
into  position. 

As  an  example  of  the  operation  of  the  Barbour 
calculator,  let  us  assume  that  7894  is  to  be  multi- 
plied by  348.  The  first  drum  to  the  right  would 
be  moved  by  its  setting  racks  until  the  series 
of  multiplying  racks  for  adding  the  multiples  of 
four  are  presented,  the  next  higher  drum  to  the 
left  would  be  set  until  the  series  of  multiplying 
racks  for  adding  the  multiples  of  nine  were  pre- 
sented, the  next  higher  drum  would  be  set  for  the 
multiples  of  eight,  and  the  next  higher  drum,  or 
the  fourth  to  the  left,  would  be  set  for  the  mul- 
tiples of  seven.  Then  the  hand-knob  G,  first  turned 
to  register  zero,  may  be  shoved  to  the  right,  en- 
gaging the  pinions  f  with  the  gears  D,  and  by 
turning  the  knob  to  register  (8),  the  first  figure  in 
the  multiplier,  the  racks  are  then  set  ready  to 
move  the  numeral  wheels  to  register  as  follows: 
The  drum  to  the  right  or  the  units  drum  has  pre- 
sented the  multiplying  rack  for  adding  the  mul- 
tiple of  8x4,  thus  it  will  present  three  teeth  for 
the  tens  wheel  and  two  teeth  for  the  units  wheel. 
The  tens  drum  presenting  the  rack  for  adding  the 
multiple  of  8x9  will  present  seven  teeth  for  the 
hundreds  wheel  and  two  for  the  tens  wheel.   The 


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From  Drawings  of  Bollee  Patent  No.  556,720 


The  Bookkeeping  and  Billing  ^Machine  187 


hundreds  drum  presenting  the  rack  for  adding  the 
multiple  of  8x8  will  present  six  teeth  for  the 
thousands  wheel  and  four  for  the  hundreds  wheel. 

The  rack  of  the  thousands  drum  representing 
the  multiple  of  8x'7  will  present  five  teeth  for  the 
tens  of  thousands  wheel  and  six  for  the  thousands 
wheel.  Thus  by  sliding  the  carriage  to  the  right 
one  space,  the  numeral  wheel  pinions  will  engage 
first  the  units  teeth  on  one  drum,  then  the  tens 
teeth  on  the  next  lower  drum  and  cause  the  wheels 
to  register  63152.  The  operator,  by  turning  the 
knob  G  to  register  (4) ,  the  next  figure  of  the  mul- 
tiplier, turns  the  drum  so  that  a  series  of  multi- 
plying racks  representing  multiples  of  4  times 
each  figure  in  the  multiplicand  are  presented,  so 
that  by  sliding  the  carriage  another  space  to  the 
right,  the  multiple  of  4x7894  will  be  added  to  the 
numeral  wheels.  The  operator  then  turns  the 
knob  to  register  three  and  moves  the  carriage  one 
more  space  to  the  right,  adding  the  multiple  of 
3x7894  to  the  wheels  in  the  next  higher  ordinal 
series,  resulting  in  the  answer  of  2747112. 

There  are,  of  course,  many  questionable  fea- 
tures about  the  construction  shown  in  the  ma- 
chine of  the  Barbour  patent,  but  as  a  feature  of 
historic  interest  it  is  worthy  of  consideration,  like 
many  other  attempts  in  the  early  Art. 

The  Bollee  Multiplier 

Probably  the  first  successful  direct  multiplying 
machine  was  made  by  Leon  Bollee,  a  Frenchman, 
who  patented  his  invention  in  France  in  1889.  A 
patent  on  the  Bollee  machine  was  applied  for  in 
this  country  and  was  issued  March  17,  1896,  some 
of  the  drawings  of  which  are  reproduced  on  the 
opposite  page. 


188  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


Description  of  Instead  of  using  eighty-one  multiplying  gear 
Bailee  Machine  racks  for  each  order  as  in  the  Barbour  patent, 
BoUee  used  but  two  gear  racks  for  each  order ;  one 
for  adding  the  units  and  the  other  for  adding  the 
tens;  these  racks  operate  vertically  and  are 
marked  respectively  Bb  and  Be.    (See  Fig.  3.) 

The  racks  are  frictionally  held  against  gravity 
in  the  permanent  framework  of  the  machine,  and 
are  moved  up  and  down  by  contact  at  each  end, 
received  from  above  by  bar  le,  and  from  below  by 
pins  of  varying  length  set  in  the  movable  plates  Ab. 

The  bar  le  forms  part  of  a  reciprocating  frame 
which  moves  vertically  and  in  which  are  slidably 
mounted  the  pin  plates  Ab.  These  plates  are  what 
Bollee  called  his  "mechanical  multiplication  tables." 

The  arrangement  of  the  pins  and  their  lengths 
are  such  as  to  give  degrees  of  additive  movement 
to  the  units  and  tens  gear  racks  equal  to  the  mul- 
tiplying racks  in  the  Barbour  multiplier. 

The  pin  plates  are  moved  by  the  hand-knobs 
Ab-,  and  the  plate  shown  in  Fig.  3  is  positioned 
for  multiples  of  nine. 

The  means  for  setting  the  multiples  correspond 
to  the  index  hand-knob  of  the  Barbour  machine, 
and  consists  of  the  crank  Am,  which,  when  oper- 
ated, shifts  the  whole  series  of  plates  laterally. 
A  graduated  dial  serves  the  operator  to  set  the 
multiple  that  the  multiplicand,  set  by  the  position- 
ing of  the  plates,  is  to  be  multiplied  by. 

The  accumulator  mechanism  is  mounted  in  a 
reciprocating  frame  which  moves  horizontally, 
causing  the  gears  of  the  numeral  wheels  to  engage 
first  the  units  racks  on  their  upstroke  under  action 
of  the  pins,  and  then  the  tens  racks  on  their  down- 
"  stroke  under  the  action  of  the  top  bar  of  the  ver- 

tically moving  frame,  the  downward  motion,  of 


The  Bookkeeping  and  Billing  Machine  189 


course,  being  regulated  by  the  upward  movement 
it  receives  from  the  pin  that  forces  it  up. 

As  may  be  noted  in  Fig.  1,  the  multiplying  plates 
are  held  in  a  laterally  movable  carriage  that  is 
shifted  through  the  turning  of  the  multiplier 
factor  setting  hand  crank  Am,  by  means  of  the 
rack  and  pinion  action.  This  gearing  is  such  that 
each  revolution  moves  the  multiplying  plates 
under  a  higher  or  lower  series  of  orders,  thus  al- 
lowing the  multiples  of  a  higher  or  lower  order 
series  to  be  added  in  the  process  of  multiplication 
or  subtracted  in  division,  as  the  case  may  be. 

Although  the  Bollee  machine  is  reputed  to  be  a 
practical  machine,  as  is  attested  from  the  models 
on  exhibit  in  the  Museum  of  Des  Arts  and  Metiers 
of  Paris  in  France,  it  was  never  manufactured  and 
placed  on  the  market. 

Bollee's  principle  has,  however,  been  commercial-     Bollee  s principle 
ized  by  a  Swiss  manufacturer  in  a  machine  made 
and  sold  under  the  trade-name  of  "The  Million- 
aire," the  U.  S.  patents  of  which  were  applied  for 
and  issued  to  Steiger. 

Hopkins  constructed  his  multiplying  mechanism 
on  the  Bollee  scheme  of  using  stepped  controlling 
plates  for  his  reciprocating  racks  to  give  the  mul- 
tiples of  the  digits,  but  the  ingenious  method  of 
application  shown  in  the  Hopkins  patent  drawings 
illustrates  well  the  American  foresight  of  sim- 
plicity of  manufa,cture. 

During  the  past  ten  years  there  have  been  a 
large  number  of  patents  applied  for  on  mechanism 
containing  the  same  general  scheme  as  that  of 
Bollee  and  Steiger,  but  up  to  the  present  writing  no 
machines  with  direct  multiplying  mechanism  have 
been  commercialized  except  "The  Millionaire," 
which  is  non-recording,  and  "Moon-Hopkins  Book- 
keeping Machine." 


commercialized . 


A  Closing  Word 

A  S  previously  stated,  it  is  impossible  to  de- 
/-%  scribe  or  illustrate  the  thousands  of  inven- 
-^  -*"  tions  that  have  been  patented  in  the  Art  of 
accounting-  machines,  and  some  of  the  inventors 
may  feel  that  the  writer  has  shown  partiality.  The 
subject  of  this  book,  however,  has  to  do  only 
with  the  Art  as  it  stands  commercialized  and  those 
who  are  responsible  for  its  existence. 

In  the  arguments  to  prove  validity  of  contribu- 
tions of  vital  importance  to  the  Art,  many  other 
patented  machines  have  been  used  which  really 
have  no  bearing  on  the  Art.  But  the  writer  was 
obliged  to  show  their  defects,  otherwise  the  mis- 
conception derived  from  articles  written  by  au- 
thors incompetent  to  judge  would  leave  the  public 
in  error  as  to  the  real  truth  relative  to  the  Art  of 
the  modern  accounting  machines. 

That  all  inventors  deserve  credit,  even  in  the 
face  of  failure,  is  without  question.  The  hours, 
days,  months,  and  sometimes  years,  given  up  to 
the  working  out  of  any  machine,  intended  to  bene- 
fit mankind,  whether  the  result  brings  a  return  or 
not, — whether  the  invention  holds  value,  or  no, — 
leaves  a  record  that  the  world  may  benefit  by, 
in  pointing  out  the  errors  or  productive  results. 

If  it  were  not  for  the  ambitions  and  untiring 
efforts  of  men  of  this  type,  who  give  heart  and 
soul  to  the  working  out  of  intricate  problems,  the 
world  would  not  be  as  far  advanced  as  it  is  today. 

190 


A  Closing  Woku  191 


The  writer  has  kept  in  close  touch  with  the  Art 
of  calculating  machines  since  1893,  and  made  ex- 
haustive research  of  it  prior  to  that  period.  There 
have  been  thousands  of  patents  issued  on  machines 
of  the  class  herein  set  forth,  but  outside  of  the 
features  reviewed  there  have  been  no  broadly  new 
ones  of  practical  importance  that  have  as  yet 
proved  to  be  of  great  value  to  the  public.  What  is 
in  the  making,  and  what  may  be  developed  later, 
is  open  to  conjecture.  It  is  a  safe  conjecture,  how- 
ever, that  in  the  present  high  state  of  the  Art  it 
will  tax  the  wits  of  high-class  engineers  to  offer 
any  substantial  and  broadly-new  feature  which 
will  be  heralded  as  a  noticeable  step  in  the  Art. 
And  that,  as  in  the  past,  thousands  of  mistakes, 
and  impractical  as  well  as  inoperative  machines 
will  be  made  and  patented,  to  one  that  will  hold 
real  value. 


Index  to  Subjects 


Types  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Machines  Page 

General  knowledge  lacking 5 

Key-driven  machine.first  of  the  modern  machines 6 

Recording,  the  primary  feature  of  adding  machines  that 

print 7 

Validity  and  priority  of  invention 8 

Description  of  Pascal's  invention 11 

Constructional  features  of  the  Pascal  machine 12 

Increased  capacity  of  modern  calculator 13 

Patent  office  a  repository  of  ineffectual  efforts 14 

The  Early  Key-Driven  Art 
First  attempt  to  use  depressable  keys  for  adding  was 

made  in  America 17 

Description  of  Parmelee  machine 18 

Foreign  digit  adders 18 

Single-digit  adders  lack  capacity 19 

Some  early  U.  S.  patents  on  single-digit  adding  machines  20 

Calculating  machines  in  use  abroad  for  centuries 21 

First  key-driven  machines  no  improvement  to  the  Art  ...  21 

Description  of  the  Hill  machine 22 

Hill  machine  at  National  Museum 25 

Inoperativeness  of  Hill  machine 25 

High  speed  of  key  dri\-e 26 

Camera  slow  compared  with  carry  of  the  tens 26 

Hill  machine  merely  adding  mechanism,  incomplete  as 

operative  machine 29 

Chapin  and  Stark  patents 29 

Description  of  Chapin  machine 29 

Inoperativeness  of  Chapin  machine 30 

Description  of  Stark  machine 33 

Inoperativeness  of  Stark  machine 37 

Nine  keys  common  to  a  plurality  of  orders 37 

Description  of  Robjohn  machine 38 

First  control  for  a  carried  numeral  wheel 41 

Description  of  Bouchet  machine 42 

Bouchet  machine  marketed 43 

Misuse  of  the  term  "Calculating  Machine" 43 

Description  of  Spaulding  machine 47 

Prime  actuation  of  a  carried   wheel  impossible  in  the 

Spalding  machine 49 

193 


194  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating  Machines 


The  Key-Driven  Calculator  Page 

Theory  versus  the  concrete 50 

All  but  one  of  the  generic  elements  solved 51 

Originality  of  inventions 51 

A  conception  which  led  to  the  final  solution 52 

Evolution  of  an  invention 55 

Trials  of  an  inventor 55 

The  first  "Comptometer" 56 

Felt  patent  371,496 56 

Description  of  Felt  calculator 59 

Recapitulation  of  Art  prior  to  Felt  calculator 60 

Why  Hill  failed  to  produce  an  operative  machine 61 

Idiosyncrasies  of  force  and  motion  increased  by  use  of  keys  61 

Light  construction  a  feature 62 

Operative  features  necessary 62 

Classification  of  the  features  contained  in  the  early  Art 

of  key-driven  machines 63 

Carrying  mechanism  of  Felt's  calculator 63 

Transfer  devices 64 

Carrying  mechanism  versus  mere  transfer  devices 64 

Details  of  Felt  carrying  mechanism 65 

Manufacture  of  the  Felt  calculator 69 

Trade  name  of  Felt  calculator 70 

Felt  calculator  exhibit  at  National  Museum 70 

Significant  proof  of  Felt's  claim  of  priority 75 

Rules    for   operation    an    important    factor   of   modern 

calculator 76 

Early  Efforts  in  the  Recording  Machine  Art 

First  attempt  to  record  arithmetical  computation 79 

Description  of  Barbour  machine 80 

Barbour  machine  not  practical 81 

Description  of  Baldwin  machine 82 

Baldwin's  printing  mechanism 89 

First  key-set  crank  operated  machine  and  first  attempt  to 

record  the  items  in  addition 90 

Description  of  Pottin  machine 91 

Early  efforts  of  Wm.  S.  Burroughs 95 

General  scheme  of  Burroughs'  first  inventions 96 

Brief  description  of  machine  of  early  Burroughs'  patents  97 

All  early  arithmetical  printing  devices  impractical 101 

Practical  method  for  recording  disclosed  later 102 

Inoperative  features  of  early  recording  mechanism 105 

Adding  mechanism  attached  to  typewriter 105 

Description  of  Ludlum  machine 106 

Ludlum  machine  inoperative 108 

First  Practical  Recorders 

Burroughs  a  bank  clerk Ill 

Felt  interested  in  recorder  Art HI 

Felt's  first  recording  machine 113 

Felt  recording  mechanism  combined  with  his  calculating 

machine 113 


Index  to  Subjects  195 


First  Practical  Recorders— Cont'd.  Vimv 

Description  of  Felt's  first  recorder.  .  .Ill 

First  individualized  type  impression  combined  with 

printing  sector 115 

First  practical  arithmetical  recorder 116 

The  first  sale  of  a  recording  adding  machine  on  record.  . .   116 

Features  of  first  practical  recorder 119 

Description  of  Felt's  second  recorder 120 

Felt  principle  of  printing  adopted  by  all  manufacturers  of 

recorders 124 

Wide  paper  carriage  for  tabulating 124 

The  wide  paper  carriage  machine 127 

Litigation  on  tabulator  patents 127 

"Cross  Tabulating" 128 

Felt  recorder  in  "Engineering"  of  London,  England 131 

Total  recording  a  Felt  combination 131 

Legible  listing  of  items  and  automatic  recording  of  totals 

first  achieved  by  Felt 132 

The  key-set  principle  more  practical  for  recorders 135 

Description  of  first  practical  Burroughs  recorder 137 

Date  of  use  of  first  practical  Burroughs  recorder 140 

Introduction  of  the  Modern  Accounting  Machine 

Opposition  to  the  use  of  machines  for  accounting 144 

Banks  more  liberal  in  recognition 145 

Improvement  slow  for  first  few  years 146 

The  High-Speed  Calculator 

Felt  improvements  on  Comptometer 149 

Scientific  distribution  of  functions 150 

Power  consumed  by  old  carrying  method 151 

Cam  and  lever  carrying  mechanism 152 

One-point  carrying  cam  impossible 153 

Felt's  improved  method  of  carrying 153 

Gauging  and  controlling  prime  actuation 154 

Alternating  stop  scheme 155 

Multiplex  key  action 156 

Control  of  the  carry  by  the  next  higher  actuator 156 

Forced  simultaneous  key  action  old 157 

Forced  simultaneity  applied  to  a  calculator  impossible.  . .  157 

Flexible  simultaneity  of  key  action  a  Felt  invention 158 

Duplex  Comptometer 159 

Introduction  of  full-stroke  mechanism 159 

Error  signal  keyboard 160 

Locking  of  the  other  orders  by  a  short  key-stroke 161 

Inactive  keys  locked  during  proper  key-action  in  cash 

register 161 

Inactive  keys  not  locked  during  proper  key-action  in 

"Comptometer" 161 

"Controlled-key  Comptometer" 162 

The  mass  of  recorder  inventions  patented 163 

But  few  of  the  recorder  patents  of  value 163 

Reserve  invention  as  good  insurance 164 

Erroneous  advertising 164 


196  Origin  of  Modern  Calculating    Machines 


The  High-Speed  Calculator— Cont'd  Page 

Error  key 166 

Sub-total 166 

Repeat  key 166 

Locked  keyboard 166 

Quick  paper  return 166 

Paper  stop 167 

Cross  tabulating 167 

Item  stop 167 

Motor  drive 168 

Distinguishing  marks  for  clear,  totals,  and  sub-totals ...  168 

Adding  cut-out 168 

Self-correcting  keyboard 169 

Split  keyboard 169 

Dual  action  keyboard 169 

Non-add  signal 170 

Selective  split  keyboard 170 

Selective  printing  cut-out 171 

Grand  totalizer 171 

Alternate  cross  printing 171 

Determinate  item  signal 172 

Subtraction  by  reverse  action 172 

Selective  split  for  keyboard 172 

Rapid  paper  insert  and  ejector 172 

The  Bookkeeping  and  Billing  Machine 

Early  combinations 174 

First  practical  combination 177 

Moon-Hopkins  Billing  machine 177 

Napier's  Bones  first  direct  multiplier 181 

First  direct  multiplying  machine 181 

Description  of  Barbour  Multiplier 182 

Description  of  Bollee  machine 188 

Bollee's  principle  commercialized 189 

A  Closing  Word 


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